Blackbird

Turdus merula (Blackbird) has a relatively large body, the length of which is twenty-four to twenty-six centimeters. He lives in forests (deciduous and mixed), parks, gardens. The male blackbird is completely black, has an orange beak and rings around the eyes. Female and young specimens of brown color with a dark tail, light belly and throat.

The bird-thrush feed on invertebrates, as well as juicy fruits, including berries.

Most nesting sites can be found in mixed and coniferous forests with damp soil and good undergrowth, in forest ravines, overgrown parks and gardens. A blackbird can wield a nest as high above the ground (up to eight meters) on pine, spruce, birch, other trees, and low enough: on small fir-trees or even stumps. Sometimes its nests are also found on the ground, between the roots of old and large trees. For construction, the Blackbird uses dry herbaceous stems, lichens, leaves, mosses and thin twigs, which are clamped together with clay mixed with plant debris, and earth. The nest is a cup-shaped formation. Its diameter is from one hundred and thirty to two hundred millimeters, its height is from seventy to ninety millimeters. The tray has a diameter of seventy to one hundred, and depth - from forty to sixty millimeters. In the nest is always laid litter of soft roots and stems. There are eggs on it.

In the masonry there can be from four to seven eggs of a pale bluish-green hue with brown or rust-violet smears and spots, sometimes condensing to the blunt end.

The male participates not only in building a nest, but also in hatching. By the time the chicks appear, they practically stop singing.

As a rule, the Blackbird starts laying eggs in May, in the second half. By the end of the same month, incubation begins. Nestlings appear by the middle of June. In rare cases, Blackbirds can make a second masonry. From the second withdrawal the chicks fly out in July or early August.

These birds are distributed throughout the European territory of Russia. Nesting grounds are found in the Caucasus, in the Kaliningrad region. Often after the nest, he stays there for the winter. The northern boundary of its prevalence roughly extends to the Urals along the Lower Kama and the Middle Volga from the Gulf of Finland. A large number of birds are found on the territory of Ukraine, in the forest areas of Kazakhstan, in the Crimea. They are also quite common in Asia Minor.

It should be noted that these birds are not easily seen in the forest. Blackbirds are cautious enough, observers are not allowed to go close. Together with this, they are pretty loud and give out their location with different callsigns.

On the ground the bird stands, bending slightly, spreading its paws and lifting its loose tail. In search of prey, she jumps among the grass or moss, gustily bowing and flinging her tail from time to time. It should be noted that twitching of the tail is a characteristic feature of all thrush.

Birds feed mainly in the morning and in the evening. At this time they find more in the grass and on earth worms, snails and night insects. They sometimes can rummage in anthills and pull out pupae from there - "ant eggs". Like other representatives of the species, Blackbirds at the end of summer and early autumn begin to eat berries - hawthorn, elderberry, brewery, rowan and others. In orchards they eat cherries, grapes. However, the harm that they can bring will be much less than the benefit that remains from their summer activities.

Mass molting of the older generation begins in July. Young individuals in the variegated (nesting) re-occur until September. Blackbirds, unlike the variegated, less "public", neither in autumn nor during the flight they form groups or large schools.