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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |  » Stats |
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| | Welcome to our newest member, jlr20058 | | |
Welcome to the Wild About Britain forums | | | |  | 
28-05-2007, 02:33 PM
| | New Member | | Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1
| |  Blackbird Songs Meanings
A male blackbird, with young nearby, has recently befriended us in our garden and has made us curious as to what his various calls mean. He will come to within a foot of my feet if I am sitting quietly and he wants food. He is often waiting near the back door in the morning.
He has a soft, quiet but fairly fast choog....choog...choog which seems to mean "feed me" but is documented on British Garden Birds website as a warning call. When he flies off with food for his young he emits a raucous rattle like an alarm call but it seems out of context here. He also sometimes holds a quiet single note call for 1 or 2 seconds, I particularly wonder what this means as he seems to go into a trance when he does it !
How much do we humans really understand bird language ? Can anyone help ?
This is my first post so I hope I have the forum technicalities and etiquette correct ! |
29-05-2007, 01:02 PM
| | New Member | | Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 18
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
Hi
Im not sure about what his song means but I wonder with him being so tame around you if he had maybe been reared by a human and released - hense him being so confident.
I suppose he could be asking to be fed?
(Just a thought....) |
29-05-2007, 04:07 PM
|  | Wild Member | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Dundee
Posts: 222
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
This is not scientific research, just what I can make out from my local blackbirds 
A soft chook-chook-chook: parents use this when they are looking for food. It seems like they are trying to ascertain where each other is and if they've found anything.
Chook-chook-CHOO-COOK-COOK-COOK: alarm rattle. Sparrowhawks, cats, seagulls, crows, big flocks of anything. They do a softer version of this which I feel means happiness, or an expression of success - thus a beakful of food is often accompanied by a chook-chook...etc as they fly into the nest.
Seeep. Seeep. Seeep: keeping in touch with the chicks, I think.
Our late blackbird's dusk song partially consisted of variations on Pop Goes The Weasel; our new bird is a bit erratic and hasn't really got a theme song 
The only time I've had a blackbird come as close as yours was when Mrs Beaky was feeding chicks. Because I spent weeks defending the nest from the local moggies (and had many a surreptitious peek inside) I think she thought I was safe enough   |
29-05-2007, 11:28 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Hampshire
Posts: 4,370
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
Hi Hampshire Hog.
Welcome to WAB.
The soft choog choog notes are contact calls as Bramble says. The alarm rattle means just that. He will take your food but his instinct is still to be a bit wary of you, especially if he has chicks nearby.
Is the 'single quiet note' the seep, seep that Bramble mentions? This is their 'hard to locate' alarm call, as it is high pitched, it can be difficult to pin point so the bird can give the alarm without giving away its location if a predator is about. Keeping itself dead still will help conceal it & it may look like its in a trance. |
16-03-2008, 03:13 PM
| | New Member | | Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 3
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
I too have befriended/been tollerated/allowed to enter my own garden by a blackbird and hen. The song I'm trying to work out is the rather hauntingly mellodic one they use after it's rained.
I have also found that if you paint something blue they read that as 'blackbird toilet here. please eat something vile before alighting'. |
16-03-2008, 03:29 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,489
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
This thread really threw me? a male with young nearby this early in March i thought? but then i clocked the post date.....doh
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16-03-2008, 05:31 PM
| | New Member | | Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 3
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Salter  This thread really threw me? a male with young nearby this early in March i thought? but then i clocked the post date.....doh | And the after rain song? |
17-03-2008, 01:31 AM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,489
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
Quote:
Originally Posted by riverghost And the after rain song? | ?? sory you have lost me? 
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17-03-2008, 05:58 PM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Northants
Posts: 6,990
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Salter ?? sory you have lost me? | All the birds sing in my garden when the rain has cleared.. |
17-03-2008, 06:36 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,489
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
ahh i see , but you had "quoted" a link from my reply as if the rain song was connected to my reply? (which it had no relation )...stop confusing me people im having enough stress over the chiff chaff !
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17-03-2008, 07:24 PM
| | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Northants
Posts: 6,990
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Salter ahh i see , but you had "quoted" a link from my reply as if the rain song was connected to my reply? (which it had no relation )...stop confusing me people im having enough stress over the chiff chaff ! | Sorry Dan..I hope that's what riverghost meant any way.. |
16-03-2008, 09:11 PM
|  | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Coast Cornwall
Posts: 588
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Salter This thread really threw me? a male with young nearby this early in March i thought? but then i clocked the post date.....doh | Me too........... |
18-03-2008, 09:16 AM
| | New Member | | Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 3
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
So basically birds sing after it rains are saying 'Sodding British weather!' |
18-03-2008, 09:32 AM
| | Officer of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Nr Lincoln Lincs
Posts: 613
| | | Re: Blackbird Songs Meanings
Quote:
Originally Posted by riverghost So basically birds sing after it rains are saying 'Sodding British weather!' | It was perhaps unprintable what they were all singing after the 'big' earthquake then, when they all let rip when the shaking had stopped | | |
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