Meet the Animals

The Springwatch cameras are once again trained on a blackbird nest here at Pensthorpe. They are actually nesting in last years swallow's nest.

Missed something? Catch up with the blackbird family here.

Species information

Blackbirds are a familiar sight in most gardens and parks and, as the name suggests, have black glossy feathers and distinctive bright yellow-orange beaks and eye rings - or the males do at least. The females are more of a mottled brown looking more like other members of the thrush family.

Often blackbirds will stalk a lawn with their head cocked listening for worms, before pulling one out of the ground to eat. Surprisingly they are not always black as albinism is quite common ranging from partial with a few white patches to totally white birds.

The blackbird is one of our top songbirds, so listen out for a lovely rich and musical song coming down from tree or rooftops towards dusk or the rapid pink-pink-pink of the alarm call.

How to help

Keep your lawn short and free of weed killer and artificial fertilisers where blackbirds look for worms and insects. Blackbirds love berries, having shrubs and trees with berries will encourage them to come into your garden. However they sometimes strip a bush bare! The RSPB website has advice on how to make your garden wildlife-friendly.

The RSPB website has a guide to feeding garden birds. There is also some good advice from Breathing Places.

Tuesday 2nd June

Too much heat and too much food – these chicks definitely had to get out of the barn.

Monday 1st June

These blackbird chicks were living life on the edge! The last chick finally left the nest on Sunday morning.

Friday 29th May

These chicks might fledge over the weekend.

Thursday 28th May

The blackbird's nest is in the barn. In fact it has been built in last year's artificial swallow's nest. We think there are two chicks in the nest.

From 2008

Watch again those blackbirds leaving the nest.