Pecking order – this young blackbird was not giving in without a fight.
A bird in the hand is not always worth two in the bush. The two young blackbirds in the video below were sitting in the middle of a country road near our family farm a couple of weeks ago. I was driving behind two other cars, and all three had passed over the two birds. I noticed some movement in my rear-view mirror after I had driven over them, so I went back for a look. They were a bit confused, but otherwise uninjured. My goal was to usher both of them back to the hedgerow where I could hear at least one of their parents calling to them. I didn’t want to injure either of them, so I was a bit tentative trying to lift them (my fear was that another car would come along the road and squash them). The little one above didn’t take kindly to my attempts, and if you listen closely, you can hear the clack of its beak as it tries to peck my hand to defend itself. In the end, both of them made it safely back to the depths of the hedge.