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Produce => Wildlife forum => Topic started by: Carol on December 19, 2011, 19:59:56
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I feed the birds on a ground feeder with a cage over to keep out bigger brids. I happened to look out and lying beside the feeder was the corpse of a blackbird. I went out to get the corpse and found a male blackbird had been pecked to death with its eyes taken. I can only imagine that a Rook or Jackdaw had done this. Horrible. :o
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Nature can be so cruel sometimes. I hadn't seen blackbirds in the garden for ages but yesterday one was back. Wild birds have been really scarce in my garden for quite some time, I am assuming it is because of the mild weather we have been having and there is so much food in the fields around us. I am hoping they will return now it is colder.
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Maybe it died of natural causes and then was scavenged...we see Magpies eating carrion?
Blackbirds love halved apples. WE halve cookers and leave them out for the Blackbirds
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It was probably sick or dead. I've seen jackdaws attack a sick pigeon, and magpies go for fledgelings, but they won't normally kill a healthy adult bird.
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I don't think the blackbird had been ill beforehand. I watch out the window constantly and ten minutes before this find I had looked out. There was an influx of Rooks and Jackdaws at this time and I suspect one had attacked the blackbird through the cage, rooks have enormous beeks. I spotted a Rook attacking a young blackbird in the early summer.
I put out half apples for the blackbirds. This morning after I had thrown out todays apples a Rabbit was enjoying the apples. Cheek. ::)
Hope your birds come back soon Lorna. If there is feed there and the birds are hungry they will come back to you. Merry Christmas Lorna. Have a nice time with your lovely family.