How are the blackbirds doing round your way?

[Yamadori]

We've seen very few of them this year, it's a bit worrying really. Their population really does seem to be declining round here (home counties north of London), and I was wondering how far this virus is spreading.

We had one little family (I think there was a chick in the hedge ) , one morning though there was a lot of shrieking and now there is just the dad :-( we have many blue tits , a pair of robins , a family of hedge sparrows , 3 goldfinches that have become just 1 :-( and a load of pigeons and visiting parrots . For us it’s been a good year for birds - first in a while . West of London .

Absolutely loads here in my garden in S. Durham despite having 2 cats.

Lots here (Lancashire). We have a male who must have been scragged by a cat or a fox because one leg and one wing were trailing. Leg seems to have healed well but hasn’t regained full use of his wing. Mealworms on tap and some handy bushes to hide in seem to have saved him. He makes it up to the house guttering and sits there being Loud while Mrs Blackbird gets arsey with the resident Robin and just gets on with stuff.

Plenty of blackbirds here in central Scotland, both in our garden and around the fields and woods where we walk.

DH remarked today that he saw one sifting through the bark chips we have just put down to get to worms in the sodden earth underneath. So much rain here after our very dry spell.

I seem to have as many as ever visiting up here in Cumbria.

We have our regular blackbirds,
but all the bluetits we were inundated with earlier have all but disappeared. (Suffolk coast)

Loads - at least 6 males territorially singing that I can see from my garden.

At the moment all the noise is the from
the recently fledged birds - blue tits, goldfinches and great finches.

When I was a child, we had a family of blackbirds in the garden. The three babies were albino, so all white! Amazing!

Blackbirds visiting our bird table regularly, I've seen at least one fledgling, and a melanistic blackbird (black & white) that we only see in Spring, he's been around for a couple of years, if it's the same one!

Ours is singing his heart out in Durham city. I usually hear him chatting with the local Robins rather than other blackbirds, at the moment, though. 4 or 5 years ago I could identify 2 distinct blackbird replies.

Our garden birds aren't doing well, this year, as we have a particularly aggressive pair of magpies in the neighbourhood. I've seen them chasing all sorts of birds and even a squirrel. One tried to take on a wood pigeon, yesterday, though, and it just turned round and threatened to lamp her one. Not to be messed with! 🕊️🏆😂

We have several round here (Somerset/Devon border) - both males & females; but I did find a dead male in my garden this morning 😞 He was in the pots yesterday, looking a bit bedraggled, but thought he might be a young male who got caught in a sudden rainstorm we’d had. But obviously he wasn’t well. Hadn’t been attacked, just looked like he’d gone to sleep.

loads of jack daws and they really fly at the magpie

Quite a few here in Tyneside. Along with billions of starlings, some bluetits, great tits, robins, sparrows, dunnocks and wood pigeons. All in and around my garden despite my having two cats.

We are in Essex. I have heard and seen a fair few. One was rootling around in the leaves in my flower bed yesterday and another having a lovely singsong in our oak tree!

Male blackbird has been visiting my garden this year.

The magpies tried to build a nest in next door's tree, a couple of years ago. A solitary rook spotted them and circled for about an hour. They decided it wasn't a good place for a nest and cleared off.

We had 6 chicks from a nest in the garden, sadly one didn’t make it (drowned in the pond and I feel guilty). We have 2 pairs visit the garden and I still see this years chicks.

There is one that sings his heart out on a busy city centre street. It's lovely to hear. I find blackbirds are like kamikaze pilots so perhaps that's why they are in decline. I wish blackbirds and thrushes would come to my garden to eat the slugs and snails.

Mr comes every morning and feeds on my lawn. Looks healthy Wales.

I haven't seen a blackbird in my garden for a couple of years - South London/Surrey borders

I’ve got a pair regularly feeding, and I’ve seen one youngster. There’s a few others around and I pick up their song or see them scuffling in the undergrowth when I’m out walking. Lancashire.

We've got lots again this year, I do love to have them in the garden, I'm in the Scottish Highlands

Recently I’ve seen one blackbird sitting on the windowsill staring inside and another repeatedly bathing in the pond, every 10 minutes or so. It did make me wonder if they have the virus.

I saw none last year (south London), this year I've noticed a couple in the back garden behind our house and a couple in the allotment so I'm hoping the worst of virus is over for my bit of South London.

Feasting on worms from my grass to feed their chicks. We get nesting blackbirds every year. Lovely. West Midlands