Methods and Tips for Hand-Rearing the Common Blackbird

Bird Selection

The blackbird (Common Blackbird, Turdus merula) is a songbird popular for keeping in southern China. Wild-caught adult birds are highly wild in nature and difficult to tame, often dying from excessive crashing against the cage, so young birds are usually taken from the nest and hand-fed. The female adult differs slightly from the male: the upperparts, including both wings and tail feathers, are blackish-brown, with the back slightly lighter; the chin and throat are light chestnut-brown, marked with dark streaks; the rest of the underparts are also blackish-brown but tinged with chestnut. Male and female juveniles are difficult to distinguish; it is generally believed that male juveniles have a distinct metallic sheen on the primary flight feathers, while female juveniles lack this sheen or it is indistinct.

Cage Selection Characteristics

For keeping blackbirds, a myna cage is suitable; a hwamei cage may also be used, or a homemade bamboo cage of similar size, with a bright bottom and bar spacing of 2 cm.

Feeding Methods

When a blackbird nestling is taken, it is generally fed bean products (such as white dried tofu or white tofu skin), cut into suitably sized small pieces and offered with a bamboo skewer; it is best to also add fresh minced meat mixed with powdered feed (such as dian'e powder, or chick feed kneaded with 20% cooked egg yolk, etc.) made into a thick porridge consistency and offered with a bamboo pick. For adult blackbirds, egg-mixed rice or egg-mixed millet is the regular feed, with one feeding dish (food bowl) of soft food daily (minced meat + cooked egg + fruit pulp + vegetable pulp + insects), the amount being judged by what is eaten within two hours.

Management and Training

Around October, the young blackbird has already molted into its bird plumage, which is a good period for learning songs, and bird-walking should begin. Every morning, take the bird cage to a park or the outskirts to let it listen to bird calls, or have it learn calls from a “teacher bird.”

The focus of daily management is the hygiene of food and water and the cleanliness of the cage and utensils. In summer, give a water bath once a day; in winter, try to raise the room temperature and ensure a water bath once a week. During the molting period, vitamins and trace element supplements must be added to the feed, otherwise it often cannot shed its feathers and has difficulty surviving the winter.