Talk:Blackbird

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To-do list for Blackbird: edit · history · watch · refresh

Here are some tasks you can do:
  • Requests: images of any races except merula and maximus
  • Copyedit: whole thing when behaviour done
  • Expand: behaviour, all aspects, and status if possible

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Contents

[edit] Pest?

Unlike many other introduced species, the Blackbird has invaded natural bushland habitats in addition to alienated lands and the surrounds of of towns, and it competes with native birds. Morecombe, Field guide to Australian birds, 2000. The index to Tim Low's landmark book on environmental destruction in Australia Feral future (Penguin, 2001 revised edn.) lists the Blackbird 8 times. It's not the most serious pest bird in Oz, but it's certainly in the top ten, probably in the top five. It occupies a similar position in New Zealand (if my memory is to be trusted) and (I think) in quite a few other places too. Tannin 18:42 Feb 18, 2003 (UTC)

I'm not sure, Jim. I'm afraid I only know about Oz & NZ. It's certainly accurate for those parts of the world. I was originally unsure: was it better to say "pest in Oz & NZ" and risk incorrectly implying not a pest in (e.g.) Africa, S. America, or say "pest in lots of places" and risk getting that wrong. Either way is a mistake. I think your present formulation is good, at least until someone with more knowledge comes along to flesh it out. (They are, by the way, a serious PITA in SE Oz. Single most common bird in my garden. I go to bed at nights sometimes dreaming about designing a computer artificial intelligence application sufficiently powerful to selectively trap and kill Blackbirds and yet leave native species untouched.) Tannin

Seems fair. I've been to USA and Canada, and not even seen a European blackbird (the native Red-winged Blackbird is the pest there). Most of sub-Saharan Africa has an unsuitable climate, and I didn't see any on my only trip to India, which has its own Turdus thrushes, but I've no knowledge at all of S America ( or Oz as you probably realise!).jimfbleak
Really? I see more Common Grackles than any other kind of icterid. I rarely see Red-winged Blackbirds, even when I'm farther out in the country. --Evice 14:47, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photos

There are some good pictures of blackbirds nest on the German language wiki version. Would someone, who knows how to, link the english version to the best of these pictures?Snowman 10:54, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

This image? --Evice 00:51, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Page name

moved this page back because it's crazy that this very ommon bird didn'thave its own article, and none of the reidrects had been fixed. jimfbleak 20:32, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] volume

Shuld the article make mention of the volume of the birdsong? From personal experience I know you can hear a blackbird from a fairly good distance, and the songs can be loud, from proximity, but of course it would have to be sourced. -- Cimon Avaro; on a pogostick. 02:24, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] National bird of Sweeden

Might be interesting to say more about this than one line. Snowman (talk) 10:24, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] photo of juvenile blackbird

The bird looks a bit cornered in the photo and perhaps a better image will become available in the spring; however, the photo shows its whitish pointed tongue, which might be a feature of interest in the description/anatomy of the bird, if a satisfactory reference can be found. Snowman (talk) 18:16, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] External links

For the GA review, I suggest making the titles of the external links more meaningful. You may want to use {{Cite web}} to make them all consistent. For example, instead of:

try

Good luck with your GA nomination.—G716 <T·C> 19:36, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sing a Song....

The text and the caption to the image use "...sing a song of sixpence..." but the text in the image is "...sing a song for sixpence...". "for" seems to make more sense to me - when did the phrase get changed to "to"? —G716 <T·C> 07:32, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Well spotted, I hadn't noticed that. I've never heard it with "for", but nursery rhymes aren't cast in stone. I've changed the caption so that at least it agrees with the cover. Jimfbleak (talk) 07:52, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Good article notes

OK, looking good so far - notes to come:

The stubby Other blackbirds looks lost at the end. Why not rename Etymology, to the more inclusive Taxonomy which can then include this information as an addendum (also streamlines it with other bird FAs like Common Raven. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 03:55, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
Any reason why Habitat and range rather than Distribution and habitat? (actually maybe we should get a consensus for all birds)....cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 03:57, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
Populations are resident in the south and west of the range, but northern birds... - style issue, I'd use 'sedentary' and wikilink it (wiktionary?) as resident maybe confsing to non-birders. Also, but to 'although' which is softer.
May as well condense lead into 3 paras. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 03:59, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
..are normally considered to involve escapes, - escapees?
..was accepted as a genuine wild bird - 'has been accepted as a genuine wild bird' - perfect tense better here
It has a repertoire of other calls.. - a number of other calls. Repertoire should be used for all of them I guess.
I'd rename Taxonomy and subspecies and make it a subsection of taxonomy - actually, organizing the headings as per Barn Swallow as you've got description above taxonomy there if you're concerned aobut having description way down the page.
Have status as subheading under distribution and habitat and others as subheadings under behaviour.
Combine stubby paras in status

In summary, a couple of minor tweaks and it is successful. Prose is good for GA, may need a little more massaging for FAC. For FAC, I think we can bolster it and I have some symbolism stuff (referenced) which can hold that section together. Good work cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 04:08, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Y Done I think I've fixed all the above, I really wasn't sure whether "natural threats" was better as a separate heading or a subheading of "behaviour". Please change or leave as you think best. Jimfbleak (talk) 08:04, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
Great. Actually, if you can, can you get the dimensions of the eggs in the article? cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 09:54, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Toward FAC

I think this will be a good FA one day. I thought about it and figured GA status didn't really require egg dimensions.

For FA - much more exhaustive - I think it should probably be a bit beefier overall, maybe 50kb in total or more at a guess.

  • egg dimensions
  • listing of brood parasites, if any d'oh. I missed it!
  • more detail of infestation in Australia (being an Aussie)
  • clarify how distantly related icterids are
  • synthesize a more coherent cultural section

More will come to mind. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 10:25, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, they're $%*%% everywhere when you visit Melbourne...cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 12:01, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Check needed

T. m. kinsii, resembles the Sri Lanka Whistling-thrush (Myophonus blighi), and the out-of-range Tickell's Thrush (Turdus unicolor)

will need to check this statement. Tickell's Thrush is actually easily possible as a vagrant in Sri Lanka and not out-of-range. Shyamal (talk) 07:31, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
I'm re-adding "out-of-range", as it fits with the ref. given. Checking the various other sources I have available for this species and region (HBW vol. 10, Thrushes by Clements et al, The Ripley Guide: Birds of South Asia by Rasmussen & Anderton, and Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Grimmett, Inskipp & Tim Inskipp), none indicate that there are any records from Sri Lanka, with the nearest record being ~1000 km to the north in NE Andhra Pradesh, and approx. the same distance to an out of normal range record in NW Karnataka. Considering how far out of range some birds manage to get themself, that of course doesn't mean that Tickell's Thrush is entirely impossible for Sri Lanka, but at present there's no evidence in the form of a record to suppport that. Rabo3 (talk) 01:22, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ticks

Perhaps a little more about the life cycle of ticks could be included to clarify why they are commoner in rural Blackbirds, rather then the urban blackbirds. I might be wrong, but I think that ticks that affect birds are specialised for feathered creatures. I am not entirely sure that bird ticks can cause Lyme disease in humans, but I have heard of deer and animal ticks causing Lyme disease in humans. As well as a skin rash Lyme disease also causes a flu-like illness. Snowman (talk) 23:02, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

I have used the existing references to expand the Natural threats section. Snowman (talk) 17:43, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Are blackbirds sexually monogamous?

They appear to be socially monogamous, but are they sexually as well? Mathmo Talk 06:06, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Most unlikely. This reference suggests that they have evolved behaviours to reduce extra pair paternity which suggests that they are unlikely to be sexually monogamous. The frequency and timing of courtship and copulation in blackbirds, turdus merula, reflect spermcompetition and sexual conflict Dariusz Wysocki, Konrad Halupka (1999) Behaviour 141(4):501-512 http://www.springerlink.com/content/jhh3hnp0u0mwgf5b Shyamal (talk) 11:01, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
Confirmed by this study. This provides a figure of 17% extra pair paternity. http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/15/3/508/TA01 Shyamal (talk) 11:06, 4 January 2008 (UTC)