Sweet song that may be fading away

THERE'S BEEN A 46% DROP IN MID-WINTER BLACKBIRD SIGHTINGS SINCE 1979

- Stuart Winter

BLACKBIRDS may sometimes sing in the dead of night but to be truly enchanted by their silvery voices then you should be listening out as the sun rises.

Of all the songbirds exulting International Dawn Chorus Day on May 4, those baritone solos delivered by blackbirds from lofty perches backlit by the first morning rays will ring supreme.

Individual males can have repertoires of more than 30 verses, each three or four seconds long and filled with melodious notes to declare his territory and sound reveille over suburbia.