Bully Blackbird

[jmsjabb]

I have nuts, seeds, fatballs and water out for the birds. They are all with in a diam of approx 4m. I have so far seen woodpeckers, finches, wrens, Robins, Sparrows, etc along with a couple of crows and some pigeons and doves.
The problem I now hove is a Blackbird. He seems to have taken over and is controlling the area, not letting anything get at the food. He flys at, jumps around and makes noises to scare off the others.
What can I do?

[welsh.lensman]

You could try putting some old apples on the ground away from the feeders, this might tempt the Blackbird away to feed on them.
By the way welcome to WAB, hope you enjoy it on here.

[ellen h]

We have had the same problem,so I set up 2 feeding areas at either end of the garden-that seemed to work. It gives the other birds a chance when he is guarding his favoured area....
Welcome to WAB,by the way

ellen

[Davy Crockett]

Blackbirds can be like that especially with their own species, try as the Lensman suggests, spread the feeding area around Happy WABing

[jmsjabb]

Thanks guys. I will try the suggestions.

[diggleken]

I have noticed them being more aggressive than normal in this freezing weather, defending their food supply more.
Blackbirds are keener ground feeders than many others so its a great idea as suggested to use old rotting fruit on the ground.
My pecking order seems to be robins next, then tits with the lovely little dunnock at the bottom - I wonder if this is the same order in other gardens/feeders?
Ken

[squishy]

this is just how nature works. he is the dominant male, so he has feeding rights, and can mate and pass on his supirior genes.

nature doesn't exist to seek the moral approval of humans

[Dave Mack]

Well yesterday all the birds in our garden where feeding happy together ... Mistle Thrush , M/F Blackbirds , Doves , Starlings , then today the Mistle Thrush has turned bandit ... he has been attacking everything in site that comes near the garden , yeah i understand he's the boss ... but its not very nice to see when hes pulling feathers out of other birds the thrush has been in the garden for a number of weeks now without a problem .... he has never once in this time been on the bird table ... but today he sat on there defending seeds and nuts ... here is a picture of the bad boy .

[Steve_In_Cheshire]

I am lucky in that i have 5-6 blackbirds that visit on a daily basis, today we must have had 8..... I think the message has got out amongst the bird community that i`m putting out good tucker

One of the blackbirds we have is a dominant male, he used to be a right bully..... He still is in some ways as he will always let the others know that our garden his his patch, here are some tips ive used to let the other blackbirds get some of the action with the food.

1. Work out where in your garden that your dominant blackbird likes to hang out, where is his favourite spot ? Set up a feeding area just for him in his favourite spot, what i do is i chop my bruised apples in half and take the core and stalk out and place one in his favourite place along with some sultanas if you can.

2. Then set up some other feeding areas in your garden as he can`t be in 2 places at once, he will try to be for a while but eventually he will just concentrate on his own apple. What i do is have 3 seperate feeding areas well away from each other, also hide some bruised apples in the bushes if you have any as the other blackbirds will find them and i always find its best to chop full apples in half as they seem to prefer them that way. They usually eat one half in a morning so i`ll put some more half apples out in the afternoon, they are very clever as you will have a lot of skins left as they eat all the inside and leave the outer so clean them up on a regular basis.

Its basically about setting up a few feeding areas ive noticed to stop him dominating one area, also don`t forget to hide some aplles in the bushes. Blackbirds are funny, the apples will start off in the bushes and quite a lot of the time they will end up in the middle of the lawn as they roll them about.

[ironron]

I notice the male blackbird in my garden bullies the other blackbirds chasing them off.
Whilst the starlings eat all the food. talk about bird brain, the starlings dont act like this, they look after there own kind.