Dear Lawrie
According to my Collins Bird Guide (Britain/Europe) northern populations of
the Common Blackbird migrate, winter mainly in W.Europe. No doubt they are
doing the same in Victoria. I've never noticed them migrating in England but
then I always lived in the South East.
Penny
Subject: 'Australian' Blackbirds - do they migrate?
> Some musing on that feral pest the Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) in
Victoria.
>
> A couple of observations this Autumn have me wondering whether some
> proportion of the Victorian Blackbird population might be migratory -
> even if its just the kind of altitudinal migration seen in various
> indigenous birds here. Let me elaborate ...
>
> At two sites I've visited in the last fortnight, I've come across groups
> of Blackbirds (about 10 birds in each case) roosting/resting in isolated
> patches of vegetation in farmland during the day. In one case the patch
> was a cluster of pines in a vast dry grassy paddock, no understorey -
> very un-Blackbird-like habitat (Craigieburn, northern Melbourne). The
> others were laid up in a mess of Spanish Heath (Erica lusitanica)
> underneath remnant Swamp Gums (Eucalyptus ovata) in farmland (south of
> Colac, northern Otway Ranges foothills). Both sites were at about 200m
> above sea level, and perhaps less than 50km from more upland forest
> (>500m ASL). In both cases they flushed in groups, and didn't give the
> characteristic Blackbird cackle that usually accompanies such disturbance.
>
> This seems vaguely like migrant behaviour to me. Thrushes like these
> often migrate at night in their natural range, and lay up in various
> copses of vegetation during the day. In the Craigieburn example,
> several migrant Grey Fantails were noted in an adjacent patch in the
> paddock.
>
> I'd be interested in any comments on this matter. Does anyone live in
> an upland kind of place with fluctuating Blackbird numbers which might
> suggest regular short - medium distance movements? Any other similar
> observations? The 'big picture' data presented in the New Atlas
> publication are not finely resolved enough to address this question -
> particularly if only some Blackbirds are migrating/moving.
> www.birding-aus.org
> --------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
> birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
> to
>
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
