Blackbirds singing

[Clinton9]

With more foods in NZ, for Blackbirds, enable them to breed from July to January, this cause numbers to increase during springtime & summer, become pests in orchards and home gardens.

Blackbirds & Song thrushes stop singing during January and their moult season are January to April in NZ.
They start to sing few weeks after they finished moulting.

With warming climate, and resently two summertime drounghts (last year & this year) Blackbirds will remain common in greater numbers, but Song thrushes will decrease in their numbers north of latitude 40oS, through they remain commoner south of latitude 40oS. Bigger cunning blackbirds chases Song thrushes and steal their worms and snails.

Without Song thrushes to control garden snails, numbers of snails increase in north of latitude 40oS, with very numberous snails and very fewer Song thrushes in Far North. Blackbirds remain common in Far North, I photoed a tame wild adult male Blackbird in Kerikeri, Far North at Parrot Garden on 2011. I had not seen Song Thrushes in Kerikeri on 2011, through
I found a nest in Whangarei Heads in 1980s, and few mins later a house owner told me he had Song Thrushes at his place in Whangarei Heads.

[ashercook]

Plenty of blackbirds singing in Hataitai, Wellington last night. Hadn't really been listening out for them before I read this message though

[andrewcrossland]

Heard my first Blackbird in full song for the year on the Christchurch Port Hills today.
cheers

[Jilly]

Thanks for that Steps, interesting - probably good grub round here - neighbours' persimmons, aging figs, and who-knows-what under leaves and mulch. Whatever is doing it, it's working for the thrushes!

[Anne Rimmer]

I understood that birds sing in the autumn when the day-length matches the springtime day-length. In response they have a burst of breeding hormone which triggers singing, but this fades as winter sets in and the days get shorter, not longer. Is this wrong? If so, what does trigger breeding time, and, for that matter, migration time in birds? Again, I believe a major problem caused by climate change is that the spring flush hatching of insects etc is happening weeks earlier now, owing to warmer temperatures, and it is occurring before the arrival of the migratory birds, eg, those which breed in the Arctic tundra. The birds behaviour is controlled by day-length, but the insects are responding to temperature. Right?
PS blackbirds are singing wildly in Auckland's North Shore as I type. They've been at it for weeks.

[Jim Kirker]

Blackbird singing at dawn this morning in a suburban street in Remuera, Auckland. First I've heard for months.
https://ebird.org/newzealand/view/checklist/S46557120