Turdus merula (blackbird) has a relatively large body length - twenty-four to twenty-six centimeters.He lived in the woods (deciduous and mixed), parks, gardens.The male blackbird in full, has an orange beak and rings around the eyes.Female and young birds brown color with a dark tail light belly and throat.
bird blackbird eats invertebrates, as well as juicy fruits, including berries.
most commonly nests can be found in mixed and coniferous forests with damp soil and good understory in forest ravines, overgrown parks and gardens.Blackbird can nest as high above the ground (up to eight meters) in the pines, spruce, birch and other trees, and low enough: in small herringbone or stumps.Sometimes nests are found on the ground, between the roots of old and large trees.For the construction of Blackbird uses dry grass stalks, lichen, leaves, mosses and thin twigs, which holds the clay mixed with the remains of plants and the ground.The nest is a cup-shaped formation.The diameter of it - from one hundred to two hundred and thirty millimeters in height - from seventy to ninety millimeters.The tray has a diameter between seventy to one hundred and depth - from forty to sixty millimeters.The nest is always laid bed of soft roots and stems.She lay eggs.
The clutch can be from four to seven eggs a pale bluish-green with brown or rusty-purple spots and strokes, thickening sometimes blunt end.
male involved not only in the construction of the nest, but in hatching.By the time the chicks almost stops singing.
Usually blackbird starts to lay eggs in May, in the second half.By the end of the same month incubation begins.The chicks appear by mid-June.In rare cases, the Blackbirds may make a second clutch.From the second output chicks emerge in July or early August.
These birds spread throughout the European territory of Russia.Nests are found in the Caucasus, in the Kaliningrad region.Often after nesting it stays there for the winter.The northern boundary of its prevalence around the Urals passes the Lower and Middle Volga Kama from the Gulf of Finland.A large number of birds are found in the territory of Ukraine, in the forest regions of Kazakhstan, in the Crimea.They are quite common in Asia Minor.
should be noted that these birds are not easy to see the forest.Blackbirds careful enough, close observers are not allowed.At the same time they are pretty flashy and give your location different callsigns.
On the ground, the bird is a little bent, legs apart and raised disembodied tail.In search of prey, she jumps in the grass or moss, abruptly bowing and vzdergivaya tail from time to time.It should be noted that the twitching tail - a characteristic feature of the thrush.
They feed mainly in the early morning and evening.At this time they are more in the grass and earth worms, snails and insects nightly.They sometimes dig in anthills and pull out pupae - "ant eggs."Like other members of the species, Blackbirds in the late summer-early fall start eating berries - hawthorn, elder, privet, ash and others.In the orchards they eat cherries, grapes.However, the damage they can cause, it will be much less than the benefits that remains of their summer activities.
mass shedding of the older generation begins in July.Juveniles in motley (female) re occur until September.Blackbirds, in contrast to the colorful, less "social" or fall, or during take-off, they do not form groups or large flocks.
