December songsters

It is not unusual to hear bird song in December. Robins and Goldfinches sing year round, Wrens will burst into song at any time. Do Starlings ever stop singing? I don't think they do.  Collared Doves and Stock Doves, after a short rest at the end of their breeding season, can now be heard calling again.
 In sunny winter days, Song Thrushes will start singing, maybe more towards January.

Wren in full song in October

Collared dove singing a couple of days ago.

Starling singing yesterday

 Today I heard two bird species singing, however, which I've never heard singing at this time of year. This morning I heard distant fluting phrases that sounded like a Mistle Thrush. I went to investigate and there it was, a Mistle Thrust atop a tree, singing contentedly.

 Blackbirds, normally will sub-sing in the winter. This is an eery, very quiet song, that usually subadult individuals carry out, as if 'practising' singing, well hidden in bushes. But as I was leaving work today, as it happened last week, I heard the surreal full song of a blackbird, its beautiful notes raising over the cacophony of the Carrion Crow roost at campus, and transporting me into spring. I had to check this out. There it was a full adult male Blackbird was singing from a wall. Given that it was quite dark at 16:15, the photo on top was the best I could manage without using the flash, but I recorded a short video of it. A very very unusual thing to happen in early December. I wonder if the unseasonally mild weather we are having is confusing this normally spring songster.

Male Blackbird courtship display

The Blackbird must be one of the birds I am most familiar with. Yet, I have only watched it courting once previously, and have never witnessed a copulation. Today I watched a male apparently subsinging inside a bush, but, upon approach, I realised it was an adult male adopting a strange, stretched-neck posture. I watched the bird and realised that there was a female low inside the bush. I couldn't include her in the photos, but I managed to get a few of the male. The one above is my favourite, there are a few more below.
 This is David Snow's description of the blackbird's courtship display:

The fully developed courtship behaviour of the male is the blackbird's most striking display. The head, with the crown feathers partially erected and the beak open, is stretched forward; the neck-feathers are compressed, and the body feathers fluffed out, especially the feathers of the rump, which form a conspicuous hump; and the tail is fanned and depressed. The displying bird has a curiously wild, staring appearence.[...] The whole time, with his beak held open, he usually utters a low 'strangled' song, made up of chattering alarm notes, rough warbles and subdued snatches of what sounds like true song.  If the display is performed in a tree, the male remains stationary or at most occasionally shifts to another perch near by, while the bowing part of the display is more prominent, developing into a rhythmic up and down movement of the whole head and neck.  

This display takes its full form during pair formation, unpaired males - young males or widowers - court females most often in February-March. Paired females attack displaying males, unpaired females appeared indifferent, although they might later mate with the male.
A brief form of the display occurs just after females solicit copulation in the days prior egg laying. According to David Snow, copulation is always interfered with by other males, who jump at the copulating male, often knocking him off the female.

This is the first photo I managed of the blackbird singing

More information
Snow, D.W. 1958. A study of blackbirds. George Allen and Unwin Ltd.

Singing mistle thrush

The local Mistle Thrushes have started to sing in the last few days. This one surprised us on our way home, on a tree in a front garden, quietly warbling, in a tentative way reminiscent of the blackbird's subsong.

December songs

Spot the Blackbird subsinging

The sun shone today, a mild December day. A couple of Blue Tits busily searched through the thinner branches of the lime tree in front of the house, while a Great Tit sang enthusiastically between feeding on the trunk and thicker branches.
Later in the day I heard the beautiful, melancholic phrases of a Robin singing. Robins, being territorial, sing almost year round. And then, a mystery song. Quiet, almost whispered twitter coming from well inside a bush. I searched, a male Blackbird, hiding, singing to himself. During spring and summer, Blackbirds sing proud from top of trees, buildings, aerials - which must feel like singing from the top of the world for the Blackbirds of Hull. Somehow the birds in winter have this desire to sing, but cannot/won't do it in its usual way. This song is called 'subsong' and it is not completely understood why they do it. Some people argue it is the start of territory defence, with pair starting to form; others argue the birds are  practicing, as it can happen from young birds. It usually happens when there is plenty of food, and some time to spare, and what better to do with your time than a bit of music?

A singing blackbird in May