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Blackbird.

 

We can hear the beautiful song of the blackbird from April until the middle of July. In morning the singing starts about an hour before sunrise, in the evenings it stops 40-55 minutes after sunset. It sings sitting still in the top of a tree. The blackbird’s song is full of variations, unhurried and serene.

 

 

Spring doings are beginning, step by step. The male birds have occupied their territories and keep invaders away. Adult blackbirds often nest in the same place as the year before if they have managed to evade all the dangers of bird life.

 

The female bird that arrives to the male bird’s territory builds the nest, in the lowest branches of trees, in a secure bush or in a hedge. In urban gardens preferably in a spruce, a thuja or a garden juniper variety, in the woodshed or woodpile, a flower box, a balcony ... in a sheltered garden corner even on the ground. Today much more blackbirds live in cities and settlements than in the forest. The number of blackbirds is estimated at three hundred thousand to half a million pairs.

 

The nest is bowl-shaped, made from tree sprigs, grass straws and leaves, for binder something clay-like, for lining moss. When the female has completed one side of the construction of a home for her chicks she lets the male bird know by body language  - beak and tail raised high, and the male bird is lured into love games. The master singer answers with his most beautiful melodies, he is very fluffed-up, ruffling his tail and ... the spring family planning is done. Towards the end of April the first nesters have four to six eggs in the clutch and the incubation has started.

 

Blackbird, female