June 2010 - Hand-feeding a Blackbird!

Wednesday 9th: Early evening and as usual, the 3 resident Blackbirds have been in and out of the kitchen all day...closely followed by half a dozen House Sparrows. Now these Sparrows have become very bold in their actions. They will also fly into the kitchen to grab a mealworm and in some instances, hassle and rob the Blackbirds while they are collecting mealworms! In an effort to scare off the marauding Sparrows, the Blackbirds snap at the House Sparrows with their beaks but mostly, the Sparrows ignore the threats. So in an effort to make sure that this Blackbird got a mealworm, I decided to see how trusting she was, after all, the Blackbirds allow us to get very close to them and in most circumstances within 2 feet!

As you can see the Blackbird does take one mealworm from the palm of my hand but is very aware of the Sparrow watching it. She takes the mealworm and then jumps up onto the bench to take the rest (out of shot) of the mealworms from the bowl!