A male blackbird in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, has developed a distinctive four-note song that descends the scale but ends slightly on the minor. This phrase, delivered after a jazzy performance of dozens of other motifs, is his party piece. He bellows it from the tallest tip of a conifer tree that sways over the road, and the observer cannot stop whistling it.
The Making of a Unique Song
The blackbird will have developed this refrain over years, starting shakily like all musicians. If the observer did not notice it last season, it was probably because he was still a shy apprentice, his song unfinished as he practised quietly to work out his preferred combination of notes. Perhaps only this year has he come into his own, refining and locking in his signature phrases, confident enough in his territory to sing them loud and proud.
The observer imagines the wordless “yes” that the blackbird must have felt as he perfected his routine, wondering if it is the same feeling experienced when writing or painting and something feels right.
Individuality in Blackbird Song
This performance is entirely unique to him. Although males copy from each other and draw on sounds from their environment, including mimicking other birds, each individual builds his own setlist from scratch, with an average of 44 distinct motifs per bird. A trip to the east of town last week revealed blackbirds with songs like ringing telephones and car alarms, highlighting how those blackbirds were not “my blackbird.” The joy of coming home to the familiar refrain marked a deeper, more personal relationship than felt with a bird before.
The Approaching Silence
What makes his song all the more precious is that it will end soon. Summer’s great silence is coming, when breeding ends and birds move into their reclusive moult. It may be six months or more until the observer hears this blackbird sing again. In a culture where we have grown used to getting what we want whenever we want it, there is something sacred in that.
Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024, is available now at guardianbookshop.com.
