The Tales of Four Travelling Blackbirds

During the winter, the UK's resident birds are joined by migrant birds arriving from the continent. You might notice the influx in your garden or where there are berry laden bushes. In fact the blackbird visiting your garden could well be a bird from the continent.

This is well illustrated by four birds from Pentrych, a small village on the outskirts of Cardiff. All four birds were ringed and later found dead by members of the public - usually having hit a window. All four show how well connected Europe's blackbirds are and it is interesting to see that they moved from urban area to urban area.

Our first bird is K994348, a first year female ringed in Zandvoort, The

Netherlands on 15th November 1998. 17 days late she was found dead in

Pentyrch on 2nd December.

RP48651 was ringed in March 1999 as a first year male. He didn't live long,

being found dead having hit a window in May of the same year. He had however

made all the way to the Swedish town of  Borlange.

CW34666 was ringed as first year male in February 2006. Just over eight months later

in November of the same year he was found dead in the Norwegian town of Egersund.  

LB34416 was an adult female ringed in Pentyrch just before Christmas in 2010.

She was found dead two years later having hit a window in the Dutch town

of Naaldwijk in November 2012


Robinson, R.A. & Clark, J.A.(2013) The Online Ringing Report: Bird ringing in Britain & Ireland in 2012 BTO, Thetford (http://www.bto.org/ringing-report, created on 15-August-2013)