Sunbathing Blackbirds

With  long spells of strong sunshine dominating yesterday's weather I wasn't surprised to see a Blackbird sunbathing on the lawn in the afternoon. However, what was a surprise was seeing five sunbathing at the same time with 4 of them close together on the lawn. The sunbathing was interspersed by bouts of preening and birds repositioning themselves to get the best of the sun's rays. Also, there was some coming and going amongst the birds that meant there was a minimum of six different birds involved and there could have been as many as eight. This is the first time I have seen so many Blackbirds sunbathing together and there was clearly a social element to the behaviour with birds choosing to sunbathe in close proximity to each other.

It was interesting that 2 adult females settled down to sunbathe so close to each other. They were joined by a juvenile soon after as can be seen in the next photograph.

With a mini heatwave forecast for next week there will be a lot more opportunities for the garden Blackbirds to indulge in more communal sunbathing.