Bullying Blackbird

[The Tiggster]

I have a rather loveable cheaky chappy of a male blackbird in the garden that isn't that bothered if you go out in the garden & stock up the bird table because he hangs about you. However he's not so nice to the other birds including his missus. He runs & charges at them & expects them to move from "his manor". Is this a usual trate or has he been watching too much Eastenders?

[andy hughes]

Blackbirs are territorial birds, and your guest is just making sure everyone is aware that this is his patch. His partner will adopt a subserviant role - such is the way of backbird partnerships, and the other birds will learn to fall into line. The make will probably expect, and make sure he gets, first go at your bird table, but this is the way bird society operates, and it's perfectly normal for all concerned.

[Robinia]

Actually it's the other way around in my garden.  The male blackbird quickly nips out & grabs a couple of currants before the female spots him & gives him hell!

I think she knows that we women rule the roost around here!

[Cetti]

It's definitely gloves off time now in the Blackbird world, in fact just after  Christmas the skirmishes began. More a dummy run at the moment just to see how the opposition reacted, but very soon it will be in deadly earnest. Last year I watched as 12 birds gathered in a neighbouring garden, but there was no fighting, just a bit of 'eyeballing'.

Like noddy, the girls carry all the clout in our garden with the chaps behaving like wimps - even practising their song from inside the privet hedge.

[The Tiggster]

Thank you to you all. I love watching the birds in the garden & have had blackbirds before. I think the couple I have now are newly weds & I had never seen a male be quite so aggressive. I will just have to have a word with his wife & get her to stick up for herself!

[Robinia]

Wait until the end of the season & he's raised his families.  If he's anything like mine he'll have about three feathers left (& they'll be grey) & he certainly won't have the strength left to be stroppy!! :-)

[The Tiggster]

Tee-hee noddy!