David Penty British Library Blackbird, Poltimore, Devon The song of a male blackbird, recorded at Poltimore, Devon in September 1965. The blackbird surely ranks as one of our most familiar birds and also one of our most vocal, with a beautiful song that can be heard throughout most of the year in our woodlands, parks and gardens. In remote areas, where blackbirds rarely encounter humans they can be shy and retiring, but they are often much more bold and confiding in urban areas. Early morning and evening are usually the best times to hear the male blackbirds at their most lyrical, as they proclaim mates and territories from favoured song posts. Each song is often two to three seconds long with a similar interval before the next burst, and is rich and mellow with a languid delivery and fluted quality. Most birds have a wide repertoire of songs and birds can even develop a 'regional accent' as certain characteristic phrases spread through adjacent territories. Most of our breeding blackbirds are resident with around 4.5 million pairs breeding in Britain. Large winter influxes of migratory blackbirds from the continent can swell the population to between fourteen and twenty million birds. There was concern that numbers had been declining since the 1970's but recent surveys suggest the populations may well have stabilised. sounds.bl.uk/022M-W1CDR0001426-0900V0 W1CDR0001426 BD9 1965/09 http://sounds.bl.uk/JISC ASR IPR STATUS LIST.xls Shove, Lawrence Poltimore, Devon: OS Grid Reference(296500,97500) Birds sound 1 1 1 1 1 0 Blackbird, Poltimore, Devon British Wildlife Recordings 1965 BL Product Identifier :W1CDR0001426 BD9 022 British Wildlife Recordings, Wildlife W1CDR0001426 AB 022M-W1CDR0001426-0900V0 00:00:55 00:00:55