BLACK BIRDS SEEN IN NORTH AMERICA

Eurasian Blackbird 

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Turdus Merula 

Males have black and glossy plumage overall. The bill and eye-ring are yellow. The eyes are dark brown and the legs are blackish.

Females are a bit more reddish-brown, slightly mottled with paler tinge on the underparts.

The throat can be paler, separated from the face by an indistinct buffy-brown malar stripe. The bill is brownish with yellow base. The eyes and legs are dark brown.

Juveniles are dark brown, streaked with buff on the upperparts, and underparts slightly mottled too. Bill is brownish.

Juvenile males of one year still keep the brown flight feathers, whereas its dark bill turns yellow.

They tend to suffer albinism (entire lack of pigment). Some birds may have several white feathers contrasting with the black plumage. 

SIZE: measures about 9.45 - 10.63 inches in length.

WEIGHT:  weighs about 85 - 105 grams.

Feeds mainly on mature cultivated fruits such as apples, pears, cherries, strawberries, and grapes; wild fruits and berries; insects, spiders and earthworms; seeds.

Urban areas including gardens, parks, and town shrubberies; farmlands with hedges and woodland areas.

North Africa, and from Europe to India and southern China. Northern and eastern populations migrate for wintering in Egypt and south-east and west of Asia.

CALL: Utters several kinds of calls according to the situation. It gives some low and slowly repeated “tchuc” when disturbed.

It utters shrills “tink-tink-tink” more or less quickly repeated, when alarmed.

These calls may become hysterical in front of a dangerous predator.

SONG: Very beautiful, made of clear and liquid notes.

NEST: The female builds an open and bulky cup made with dry grasses, moss and mud.

It is a robust nest among the vegetation, at low height but well hidden, fixed in a three branches’ fork.

EGGS: 3 - 4 greenish eggs mottled with brown.

INCUBATION: 13 - 14 days.

They feed mainly on the ground, turning leaf litters to extract invertebrates hidden below.

They peck and tear off moss for the same reason.

They are diurnal birds.

They migrate seasonally in the fall or winter season.

SOURCES: https://www.birds-of-north-america.net

                   https://en.wikipedia.org

                   https://animaldiversity.org

                   http://www.oiseaux-birds.com