Description
Sex : M
Origin : Italy
Age : adult
Stuffed Blackbird male Turdus merula Birds Aves Passeriformes Turdidae, only a piece, with pedestal, as in photo.
Family: Turdidae.
Common name: Blackbird, Common Blackbird or Eurasian Blackbird.
The Blackbird (Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758) is a passerine bird of the Turdidae family.
Of medium size, the male has a completely black livery and a yellow beak, while the female is blackish-brown. Monogamous all its life, it lives in isolated pairs, but tends to become more social and gather in flocks during migrations. Omnivorous, during the breeding season it prefers a protein diet, feeding on insects and their larvae, small snails, worms, while berries, olives and fruit are more important in autumn and winter. The blackbird's nesting range includes Europe, North Africa and a large discontinuous area that extends east to eastern China and south to Sri Lanka. The Italian population is partially sedentary and the range is vast. Its natural habitat is the woods, but it adapts to living wherever there are conditions for nesting, including urban areas.
The adult male is up to 25 centimeters long, with a wingspan of 34-38 cm and weighs up to 100 g. In nature it has an average lifespan of 2-3 years, but in captivity it can exceed 20 years. The migratory flight usually occurs at night and can cover up to 2,000 kilometers. In the same season, up to three broods can follow one another, often in different nests. The nest is built by the female, although the male may participate by collecting materials. Four to six eggs are laid. The blackbird is an excellent songbird and, when it sings, tends to place itself towards the top of a tree; he has the ability to easily learn any melody, and then repeat it until boredom.
It is preyed upon by various birds of prey, corvids, mustelids, foxes, cats, squirrels, etc., which feed on its eggs and chicks, and is parasitized by various ectoparasites (lice, fleas, ticks) and by endoparasites and pathogens. The blackbird is then parasitized by the cuckoo.
The global population is likely to be 10 million to 500 million mature individuals, with numbers increasing; in Italy they are estimated between 2 and 5 million.
In general, the blackbird plays a significant role in ecosystems, regulating the populations of invertebrates, such as gastropods and insects, largely harmful to agriculture, as well as potentially dangerous animal parasites. In Australia, the blackbird is included among the extremely dangerous invasive species for crops. Furthermore, they can disperse the seeds of heavily weedy species that suffocate the undergrowth, preventing the establishment and growth of native species. Finally, it represents a threat to some endemic birds, as these species compete for food resources, and consumes some endangered invertebrates.
In a long-term perspective, given the climate change that is determining the redistribution of life on Earth, the blackbird is among the migrants with the greatest potential for dispersal of European plants towards colder latitudes.
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