Blackbird war zone!

[ClarionCall]

We have had a pair of blackbirds visiting our small suburban garden for a couple of years now: the male is relatively "tame" and comes to the fence as soon as he hears the patio doors slide open. He is fond of raisins. This pair reared an early (I believe) brood of young...they were fledged and in our garden early April...and the female began to build a nest in the garden a couple of weeks ago. However, over the weekend another pair seem to have zoned in on the old pair's territory. Our male and the other (younger?) male have been flying over and over the garden like fighter jets engaged in a dog fight. The older female has continued to bring foliage to the nest but then I noticed the younger male was climbing over the clematis to the nest site....soon seen off by the older male....It seemed as though the younger male had his eye on the nest and I would sometimes see him "eyeing" it up from the patio. This morning I noticed that the younger female was sitting in the clematis with a beakful of dried grass....which she swiftly took into the older birds nest and began to settle down! The older female had already been in there earlier.
Are the younger pair trying to dethrone the older pair? Is this common behaviour whereby one pair will take over another pairs nest? Am I likely to see any fledglings!
There has also been a lot of aggressive posturing and mating going on....but no idea who is mating with who! It is all a bit Footballers Wives!

[greenace233]

i had the same in my garden. Very territorial. i think they protect the food source as well. they just dont lijke to share. i put live maggots out daily and thats when the fights start, usually the males, females just getting on with things. good luck with that one. my chics made it this year and i think it its down to the feeding. if they find food the female can stay in the nest longer. On the other hand if they have to spend longer searching for worms then thats when trouble arises. They absolutely stuff there beaks with them and take them back to the nest.

[solus]

My garden has "my" resident pair of Blackbirds who have just fledged an unknown number of young from a nest in the Pyracantha at the front and a "visiting" pair who appear to be nesting in the back hedge/trees 3 doors along. They somehow all manage to arrive at my ground feeder at the same time and while the females get on with the important task of stuffing as many sultanas down their throats as possible, the two males are often too busy seeing each other off and even actually fighting! In the end, they all seem to feed OK - as long as the Starlings haven't arrived and scoffed the lot first!

Oh, if anyone notices that Sainsbury's are in the midst of a "Value" sultana shortage, I'm afraid it may well be down to my Blackbirds and the recently-arrived Starlings. 7 adults at the moment but I am expcecting them to bring the offspring any day now so there will be even more packs of sultanas flying off the shelves!!

Trouble is, I'm a softy and when the tray is empty I am liable to give in when pressed and put seconds (or thirds!) out. One afternoon last week I had just taken my lunch out into the garden and settled down to read another chapter when along comes Mrs Blackbird, perches on a nearby table and proceeds to make little clucky noises at me while flapping her wings in a "begging" manner. Well, if that wasn't asking for sultanas, I don't know what was! When I put the book down and went indoors she watched from the side fence and as soon as I had put the sultanas on the tray and sat down again, she flew past me and was in the "cage" eating them! Lovely!!