Blackbird

Scientific name:	Turdus merula
Conservation status	Introduced and naturalised
Mainland status:	Widespread and abundant
Size:	25cm, 90g
Lifespan:	15 years possibly
Breeding:	August - January
Diet:	Mixture of invertebrates and fruits

Introduced from Europe in the 1860s and 1870s and now considered the most widespread species within New Zealand, especially in gardens, parks, orchards, farmlands, scrub and forest.

The male blackbird is black with a bright orange bill; the female is dark brown with a pale throat and smudgy mottled breast with a dull orange and brown bill. The song is a loud, clear melodious warble. The alarm call is a persistent sharp 'chink – chink'.

Usually they breed from late August to early January and 2–3 broods a year are raised, sometimes in the same nest.  A substantial nest is built of twigs, grass, roots and moss, fortified with mud and roughly lined with grass and leaf skeletons. The eggs, 2–6 per clutch, are bluish green to greenish brown, freckled with reddish brown.  The female incubates for 13–14 days and both parents feed the chicks which fledge at 13–15 days.

Blackbirds feed mainly on the ground and eat insects, spiders and a wide variety of fruits from both native podocarps and shrubs and introduced shrubs and weeds. They can cause damage to orchards and spread weed seeds into native forests and crops, but they also help to disperse the seeds of fleshy–fruited understorey plants in native forests.

Learn more about blackbirds by visiting New Zealand Birds Online.
















Photography by: Dr Kerry Rodgers © (Male - top right; female - bottom left)

References: Heather, B.D.; Robertson, H.A. 2000 The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. Auckland, Viking. Moon, G The Reed Field Guide to New Zealand Birds.