Eurasian Blackbird Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

“Blackbird singing in the dead of night....” Eurasian Blackbird is the species immortalized in the 1968 Beatles song “Blackbird.” The bird's mellow song even makes an appearance at the end of the recording.

Eurasian Blackbirds sometimes use good hearing and a bit of thievery to obtain an easy meal. Blackbirds eat small snails, but are unable to open larger snails by themselves. But if a Eurasian Blackbird hears a Song Thrush hammering on a snail shell, it may swoop in and steal the snail after the Song Thrush has extracted it.

For North Americans, the word “blackbird” conjures up images of Red-winged Blackbirds or Yellow-headed Blackbirds—members of the family Icteridae. But Eurasian Blackbirds are thrushes, in the same family (Turdidae) and genus (Turdus) as American Robins.

Female bird song has long been overlooked, but Eurasian Blackbird is one of the more than 600 species where ornithologists have documented female song. Female Eurasian Blackbirds give a soft song in response to male song during courtship.

Basic Description

Other Names