Do Blackbirds fight till the death

[Naturenutz]

Today while out walking on the severn estuary i saw what looked like a blackbird fall from a tree.As i got closer i could see it writhing around on the floor through a gap in the scrub.At this point i was thinking it had probably broken a wing.I carried on walking closer until i was looking directly over the bird when i realised it was pecking down on another bird with both birds feet entangled.I had too shout twice before they noticed i was looking down upon them,i could honestly have caught them by hand they were that distracted.The bottom bird escaped first then the top one flew off .Pretty sure they were both female blackbirds and not males.No yellow/orange beaks.
My questions is do they fight to the death ? I have heard robins do fight till death but i never knew blackbirds do. I am pretty sure the top one would have killed the other. I saw its stabbing motion with the beak.I hope they settled the dispute without another battle.

[aeshna5]

I'm sure it does happen occasionally, but normally the less successful bird will make a hasty retreat.

[The Woodman]

I too have watched some ding-dong battles between blackbirds recently, Nautrenutz.

I was convinced that one bird was going to be injured in the last scap witnessed but as in all fights it suddenly stopped when apparently, the aggressor released the bird on its back and flew away. The subdued bird did nothing more than have a shake and got on with turniing leaves over in the border.

We have a healthy population of blackbirds but never see any dead ones so I don't think they fight to the death.

There's little bit of bird behaviour just before the scrap. Two, three or four cock birds on the lawn all vying each other and the dominant bird will follow or may be even move on an individual so what I see is vitually parallel hopping. A succession of hop, hop, hop - stand and stare, followed by a repeat until something triggers an attack.

As you say, when they are fighting they are oblivious to anything else.

Other birds present never join in, it's only ever between two birds.

[Red Robin]

I've noticed here that the female blackbirds behave more aggressively than the males, which surprises me. She has even chased the robin. That same female uses my bird bath daily. She's a bit of a drama queen methinks.

[Harold Smith]

Yes! I have seen Blackbirds fight to the death in my own back garden. These were two males in early spring last year. Many times I have seen aggression between the males with one of them usually flying off after a few minutes of fighting. On this occassion it appears that neither one of them was prepared to give ground. The fight went on for more than five minutes resulting in the defeated male having an eye torn out and being stabbed several times in the neck by its oponent's beak.

The intereesting thing was that the other blackbirds, mainly females, plus the other birds in the garden took no interest in the two fighting males. It was as if nothing was happening. After ten or minutes or so I removed the body and buried it.

Harold.

[lilyrose]

Yes, they do. For years we had a male blackbird who stayed around our garden all year round, he had few white feathers in one wing, we called him Flash. He would 'ask' for his breakfast each morning. We went away for a few days early one summer and when we came back he didn't appear. After a few days we asked our neighbour, who also fed him, if she had seen him around and she said that sadly he had been in a vicious fight with another blackbird and the fight had ended when Flash fell (was pushed?) into her Koi pond, she went out but he was already dead and had been badly injured. Natures way of getting rid of the old and weaker males but it was very sad.

[The Woodman]

I should have said, "I've never seen a death caused by fighting" rather than, "I don't think they fight to the death" !

Here's to the power of observation.