28th December: Colly birds

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, four colly birds (or calling birds). So what the heck are colly birds, anyway? They're blackbirds. Very common in the UK, the males are black with Yellow eye rings and bills, while the females and juveniles are dark brown. 10 things you may not know about blackbirds:

1. The colour of their bills can vary. They can be yellow, orange or brown; and tend to be darker in winter. A male blackbird is more aggressive towards an intruder with an Orange bill than to one with a yellow bill, or a brown bill, which he may not attack at all. When choosing a mate, one of the things a female blackbird looks for is a shiny bill.
2. Blackbirds are members of the thrush family.
3. How come blackbirds got to be called blackbirds when there were other contenders for the title, like rooks and crows? The answer is that in old English, the word "bird" was only used for smaller birds, while rooks and crows, being bigger, fell into the category of "fowl". The blackbird was the only small bird that was black. Until the 17th century, the species was also referred to as ouzel or wosel.
4. They are woodland birds, but their preferred breeding grounds now are people's gardens. Hence the most common causes of death for blackbirds is getting run over by a car or eaten by someone's Cat.
5. On average, blackbirds live 2.4 years, but one ringed blackbird lived to be over 21 years old.
6. A blackbird will usually mate for life, although pairs have been known to separate if they don't successfully breed. Their nests are cup shaped and made from grass and leaves bound together with mud. The female builds the nest. The eggs are blue-green with brown blotches. Cuckoos will lay their eggs in a blackbird's nest, but the blackbird is smart enough to recognise the cuckoo's eggs because they look different, so it is rare for them to actually raise a cuckoo chick.
7. The Greeks believed that a blackbird would die if it ate pomegranate.
8. The blackbird is the national bird of Sweden.
9. Blackbirds typically like to sing after rain.
10. Kosovo in Serbia may have been named after blackbirds as their word for blackbird is "kos" and "kosovo" means belonging to the blackbird.