blackbird

Bird Turdus merula of the thrush family, Muscicapidae, order Passeriformes, about 25 cm/10 in long. The male is black with a yellow bill and eyelids, the female dark brown with a dark beak. It lays three to five blue-green eggs with brown spots in a nest of grass and moss, plastered with mud, built in thickets or creeper-clad trees. The blackbird feeds on fruit, seeds, worms, grubs, and snails. Its song is rich and flutelike.

Found across Europe, Asia, and North Africa, the blackbird adapts well to human presence and gardens, and is one of the most common British birds. North American ‘blackbirds’ belong to a different family of birds, the Icteridae.