Birds

Common Blackbird

The Common Blackbird was introduced to Australia in the 1850s and was originally confined to Melbourne and Adelaide. Now considered a pest in Eastern Australia, its habitat has spread inland, and as far north as Sydney and down into Tasmania and the Bass Islands. Fearful of it becoming a pest to commercial crops and competing with native wildlife, the blackbird is destroyed on sight in Western Australia. Another true thrush, the Song Thrush, has also been introduced. We have several native thrushes of our own.

I have a pair of blackbirds living in my garden.

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They nest in my jasmine creeper which has bushed over a garden arch. Before that, they nested in my rose tree when I had let it get a bit overgrown. You can imagine my surprise when I pruned it that year. It had a couple of old eggs in the nest, and I was able to identify them as belonging to the blackbirds.

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a little one behind our wood pile

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The pair have a new brood in the jasmine, but I’m wary of having a look. The last time I did that, the chicks vanished the day after I took a photo of them. They had only just hatched. The blackbirds abandoned my yard for most of 2016. I wondered if they took their babies to one of their old nests.

I love watching them getting themselves a feed. I can certainly believe they are destructive in vegetable gardens from the way they forage around our wood pile. They scatter bark and wood chips all over the place.

Thanks for looking. Do have a good weekend!  🙂

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13 thoughts on “Common Blackbird”

  1. sue ouzounis says:

    Didn’t realise they were a pest. Don’t see many around our way. More magpies & crows lately. I kind of assumed they ate worms, grubs and insects, which is a good thing. What do the farmers think of all the native birds that love seed, suppose they hate them to.

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    • Forgot to say, some complain because they reckon the blackbird has taken over the habitat of the bassian thrush and spread weeds like blackberries. They love fruit and cause massive destruction in orchards. I never see many around.

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  5. well you are kind to let them nest in your space.
    and love the pics….

    and I knew they were pests – for some reason when I opened the post and saw them – I conhured up that image of them being annoying.
    sorry that they are shot on site like that –
    and curious -when you say old eggs – were they still viable?

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    • Hmm, the old eggs – it never occurred to me that the intact one might be viable. I don’t know how old the nest was but it couldn’t have been all that old as I usually keep my rose fairly tidy. I got a shock when I found the nest in the middle. It’s a standard rose but grows fast and ends up like a small tree! As to their pest status, they are supposed to compete with native thrushes for habitat but it’s their commercial crop damage that has them being killed in Western Australia. I’ve heard of people taking baby birds to the vet and being refused treatment. My pair rarely manage to produce young to adulthood – currawongs, crows or possums have taken the latest brood, too, I think. They will just start again.

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