Bloody, buggering blackbird......

[Toooldtobearsed2]

Too hard to explain the set up - briefly, i have a small holding where anything goes. I also have an enclosed garden for me. Me and the cat. And sometimes the dogs.
I also have a blackbird who has decided to adopt me. I watched him fledge and he has never left.
He pretends to be dead. No word of a lie, he lies on the ground with his head twisted at an awkward angle and his eyes open. 'Oh shit' i think, and run to get a poo bag to dispose of him in (his shroud, you understand), only to find the little fucker standing, staring me down defiantly.
He sits. I shit you not, SITS, on oldest retrievers back. For hours at a time. He follows me when i go to feed the goats.
Today, i find him inside, quite happily sitting on the dogs bed. The cat is asleep, 3 feet away from him. Briefly raised his head when i came in, cast a dirty look at blackbird and went back to sleep.
FFS, i feed the masses. I have a hoard of animals, mine, fostered and dumped on me. Now I have a bloody blackbird that the cat just wont eat (JOKE folks).

On the serious side, i cannot deal with flapping birds indoors, they seriously freak me out. Apart from keeping doors closed, I guess there is nothing else I can do?
Pic of little shit, just for entertainment value

This is just amazing - I'd give almost anything to have a blackbird like yours, OP, but my murdering cat would kill him instantly

Does he sing to you too?

On Stratter’s Mortimer threads there was someone who had ‘tame’ crows. I think they’d raised them and released them, but they came to call. They enjoyed astounding visitors by going out to the garden and calling wild birds 🦅 down.

My mum has been adopted by a blackbird. He comes and taps on the window if she's late with his food.

I'm loving all these blackbird stories.

We used to have a very tame robin who would regularly hop in & out of the cat flap into our utility room. A small bird wouldn't be able to push the flap of course, but ours used to get stuck half way open so it was easy for it to get in.

Unfortunately he did it once too often, when the cat happened to be in the vicinity. It didn't end well

I love this I had a tame squirrel who would come in and follow me around the house. She was fascinated by the tv and would watch it for hours (whilst nibbling on the nuts the ridiculous human had got for her). If the door was shut she’d knock it with her little paw. My mum didn’t believe it until she saw it!

Loving this thread- can’t wait for updates 😊

I want to see more of Boris Barry the Buggering Blackbird too.

I've got lots of birds coming to the feeder on my patio but I can't tell any of them apart as individuals. I live in hope.

Another one enchanted by this

I've two 'tame' crows I can call down from the trees who come to have their chunked up slice of seeded wholemeal bread daily (actually, I only eat Morries white sliced,toasted) so I buy this specially for them)
We've a flock of magpies around, so one crow goes on guard, chasing off the magpies, while the other crams his face with bread, before they both fly off back to the trees to divvi up the bread,
and they're both back later to eat the seeds (well the rest of the packet of Gujurati Mix) I've been eating in the evenings. Between us we get through 2x200gms packs per week.

They're clever wee birds. I'm sure you can train him to stay out of the house. Shoo him out gently then reward him when he's somewhere you want him to be.

Would love more pics!

We too have a tame blackbird though nothing to matching Buggering. He's been very close to eating out of our hand but just won't take that final step. We feed him a few mealworms but don't want him to become reliant on our food. He'll happily spend hours pottering around the garden when we are out there, we talk to him quite a bit because we are daft like that.

The playing dead is apparently known as sunning according to the RSPB. Ours does it a lot so DH looked it up. It's for maintaining feathers in good condition and regulating temperature, so nothing to worry about thankfully.

We're being utterly terrorized this summer by a terrifically aggressive male blackbird who spends hours on end squawking at us and the cat a few feet from the back door. Now I do have sympathy - DCat is an utter sod and an efficient killing machine- but seriously, this bird seems to have swallowed a Duracell battery the way it keeps on going all day.

This morning I found baby blackbird in a bush next to our fence in the neighbours' garden, waiting for food - DCat is in such trouble if he goes for such a sweet little bird. As I said, I do have sympathy with daddy bird's tiger dad instincts.

Sorry, late back to the thread, kept having a quick look, but no time to post until now.

Been down in the paddock all morning and just waved a saddish goodbye to Alethea (alpaca), so haven't been in the garden today yet - will report back later on that.
Meanwhile, great news that Buggery is sunbathing rather than pretending to be dead. He is clever, but an imagination is a step too far😁
And how clever are blackbirds??? I had no idea until reading your posts, they really are clever buggers!
Very windy here at moment, so not leaving doors open, else everything bangs, so not much BBinvasion possible at moment.
Might kick old dog outside and see if Buggery will settle on him😉

Mentounasc, a couple of years ago my cat would have had BB, no question, he was a sod for bringing live things into the house too. You would not believe the amount of live mice I caught and released. He once brought home a rabbit that was bigger than he was.....
These days, he simply cant be arsed.

I’m with daddy blackbird on this one. He is, of course, saying “keep away from my kids, ya bastard,”

I love this. I want a pet blackbird!

Saying that we do have a blackbird nest in our hedge. They come back every year.
They had 4 chicks which all survived, they were all in our garden yesterday. Mam,Dad & the 4 chicks.
Lovely to see.

We used to have a neurotic blackbird which shouted out its distress call all day long which wasn't terribly relaxing. Either he's chilled out or a more melodious family have moved in as this year we just have delighted singing. We saw the sunning behaviour last year for the first time; looks quite strange. I learnt recently that blackbirds will usually rest at the highest point they can find and sure enough when I hear their song and look up they're invariably at the top of the highest tree / rooftop.
Lovely birds.

What a wonderful blackbird story, and the way you describe everything. I have three cats,and funnily enough they just sit and stare at the two blackbirds who come onto the lawn in search of worms. But if they see any magpies come down,they usually give chase to them,the same with starlings. Magpies and starlings are very quick to scoot off,so they never can catch them.

I wouldn't mind a bird coming into my house, I used to have two cockatiels years ago,and they used to be free in the house at times. and used to have a neighbours hen come walking into my kitchen years ago.

Not sure of a name for your blackbird, my son has an all black cat with green eyes, and he calls it Satan, but not quite right for a bird ha ha,

We have a blackbird too and his squeeze who wander round our patio. I also have a robin who taunts my cats and sits near me in the garden. I want a crow, but for now I have to settle for my two gigantic magpies

OP you simply can't call a blackbird "buggering" - all that glossy beauty and all that wonderful song really does deserve something better

How about Merle? It was the old fashioned name for them, after all ...

They sunbathe! I had one that used to play dead in the garden.

I have a female black bird who helps me with the gardening. She is incredibly bossy and demanding, and she gets so close I've nearly stepped on her countless times.

Sorry they are cute, I'll swop your blackbird for the crows I've caught twice so far in my house eating dog food (silly dog leaves it all day)

I bloody love things like this:
I've two 'tame' crows I can call down from the trees who come to have their chunked up slice of seeded wholemeal bread daily (actually, I only eat Morries white sliced,toasted) so I buy this specially for them)blush