Blackbirds start nest building!
Wed 29th February 2012
The blackbirds have been doing a lot of chasing and flapping since Valentine’s Day, (traditionally when all the birds get married), and a few days ago I realised that Mrs Blackbird has started gathering nest materials. I’ve captured some rather wobbly video of her hard at work, but I’m trying not to put her off by taking too much interest!
She has chosen a dense evergreen laurel bush for this first attempt and was still busy on day 5. Female blackbirds take around 2 weeks to make a nest, weaving small twigs and grass stems into a cup which is camouflaged with moss, and finished with a lining of compacted mud. Although I would love a peek to see how this one’s coming on, I daren’t disturb her! It is actually illegal to disturb the active nests of any wild birds, so I’ve missed my chance to trim that very overgrown laurel!
Blackbirds are originally a woodland species, but spread into human habitats during the 19th Century. A third of our blackbirds now breed in parks and gardens, often close to houses. As over-wintering residents they are amongst the first garden birds to start pairing and nesting, usually managing several broods, especially in damp summers when earth worms remain accessible at the soil surface.
There are risks associated with an early start – late cold snaps can mean low insect populations, and nests are harder to conceal from predators before the leaves are fully opened. Only 30-40% of nests result in fledged young, but garden sites fare better than woodland due to lower predation rates. Hopefully this one will be a success, and remain undiscovered by the squirrels and magpies that hang out around here!