Blackbird

The blackbird is one of our most numerous and best-loved breeding birds. In winter, hundreds of continental blackbirds – the young birds differentiated by dark bills – flock to the UK and our resident population work tirelessly to defend their patch. In towns, their call may be heard even in winter due to street lighting. In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when Bottom sings of “The ouzel cock so black of hue with orange tawny bill” he is referring to a blackbird with his dapper egg yolk yellow eye ring and bill. The name ouzel was once frequently used for the blackbird, while its close relative, the rare ring ouzel is sometimes called the mountain blackbird. Blackbirds were also nicknamed colley, woofell, black uzle and zulu. Their Gaelic name is ion dubh.