blackbird family

roweeeeena

Earlier today I noticed that the male and female blackbird who I always see in my garden were with 2 juvenile blackbirds who were plump and the same size as the parents. The young ones were sheltering under a hedge while both parents went to get food for them and fed them beak to beak, but the offspring were also able to pick around and get food themselves. Just wondering how long will the parents look after them like this? I thought that once they were old enough to fly the nest the parents wouldn't feed them like that, how do the four of them all still fit in the nest?! Was great to watch anyway!

Kess73

The male bird never got to stay in the nest at any stage. When the female is sitting on eggs and with young, the male brings her the food and sleeps somewhere nearby at night. Once the young have left the nest, then they sleep outside at night also.


The feeding you are seeing continues for a number of weeks until the young are fully able to forage for food themselves.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Kess has it spot on.
I get a lot of queries around recently fledged chicks and many people comment on their size. Apart from birds which leave the nest immediately (Ducks, Coots etc) fledged chicks are usually very close in size to the adults.
Feeding by the parents will carry on for some time and varies between species.
The other most common error out there is that birds live in nests. They lay eggs in them, feed very young chicks in them, they sometimes even congragate in large numbers in them in Winter (e.g. Wrens) but they do not live in them. Only last month I was saying this to a School Teacher who was astonished, as she had been teaching that birds always live in nests for the past 30 years and her school books did nothing to persuade her otherwise.:)

Of course we're now at the time of year when the questions about chicks falling from nests or abandoned by the parents where there are Magpies or Cats about. Don't panic. Generally such newly fledged birds should be left alone and they will be perfectly fine.

roweeeeena

thanks for clearing that up, thought i was witnessing 2 very parental blackbirds! they're all still about the garden, i've restricted my cat to the back garden until the young ones learn the tricks of the trade a bit better! actually i think i did know that about the nests being only for nesting, just didn't think of it, you are always taught that birds live in nests.. won't forget from now on anyway!