Let’s hear it for the blackbird

Blackbirds seem to be in full voice now, perhaps making the most of lengthening daylight hours to enchant us with their song at dawn and dusk.

Looking out the window, I see a few males poking their beaks under dead leaves for worms and insects, hopping restlessly around the place while darting their heads in a curious way.

Each year, a melodious blackbird perches on the same branch of the same tree beside the house, warbling away until darkness falls. I wonder is it the same fellow returning.

With coal black feathers, an orange bill and yellow rings around the eyes, the male stands out. The female has a brown coat with some speckles on the breast. The species is among the most numerous in Ireland, though not all are Irish.

During winter, some experts say, visiting blackbirds outnumber the natives. Many migrants come from Scandinavia, as well as Scotland and the north of England. According to leading Belfast bird-watcher Anthony McGeehan, breeding birds from Norway to the Russian border show a strong tendency to wing it west.

“They winter from Britain and Ireland south to Spain, with some reaching as far north-west as Iceland or south-west to Morocco,” he writes in his well-researched book, To the Ends of the Earth – Ireland’s Place in Bird Migration.

Their travels can be traced through information gleaned from the ringing of hundreds of thousands of birds over the past 90 years. McGeehan says most migrants will be leaving here by the end of this month. The blackbird breeding season is from March to July and they can be heard singing from February to April.

They nest in hedgerows, brambles and ivy.

Being territorial birds, you can occasionally see two males in fighting mode, with one trying to frighten off an intruder.

They hop around one another, sometimes going to face to face and bowing as if about to attack. It never gets physical, however.

Given its distinctive warble, the blackbird has long been associated with music and an eponymous Irish traditional tune has always been popular.

The renowned Sliabh Luachra fiddler, Denis Murphy, for example, is fondly remembered for the way he played The Blackbird and danced at the same time.

Also featuring in folklore, omens of good luck for the remainder of the year were the sight of two blackbirds together or a blackbird’s nest near your home.

A downside was that the blackbird could be a messenger of death. And, yes, there are white blackbirds. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says this is caused by partial albinism, a hereditary defect.