Common Blackbird - male feeding chicks 3, Heesch, Netherlands

An update on the chronicles of the common blackbird, playing out their entire reproducive lifecycle in our garden. Which we get to watch in great detail, given our prolonged home stay.

A few weeks earlier, we saw the male and female collecting big amounts of food, meaning the young are born. Here we get to meet the young. There's 3 in total, yet these photos show just 2. They look large and fluffy and follow the male everywhere. It's the male's job to feed these beggars, as the female is already trying to start yet another family.

The young are chaotic, clumsy and dependent. They have working bills so could easily pick a worm or in this case the apple. But they refuse even if the food is straight in front of them. Dad must insert it directly into their bill. They also keep moving around, adding stress to dad as he constantly have to find them again, and not just one.

Blackbirds are terrible at picking nest sites. They tend to position them at 1m or lower, making them easy prey for cats, and sometimes birds of prey. This is perhaps the most vulnerable phase for the young, as they are slow, poor flyers and naive.

Our 17 year old cat is still too slow and disinterested to catch them yet I ensure he only goes in the yard when they aren't around.