frog eating Blackbirds? Is this usual? (2 Viewers)

[kingkatrina]

My parents have seen female blackbirds eating frogs in their garden and asked me to ask the experts whether this is usual behaviour.

Here is the email my Dad sent me.

"We have several pairs of blackbirds disputing territory and raising families in and around our garden. Their normal diet seems to consist of worms and smaller prey, but last month we witnessed female blackbirds aggresively attacking and eating medium sized frogs or toads. They would chase them and then pick them to pieces, leaving very little, in a matter of minutes. Although quick it was evidently not an easy meal as the animals seemed to make quite tough eating, and quite disturbing to watch. There were several incidents over a week to ten days and then they stopped, although there are still frogs around. Our neighbours also saw similar incidents in their garden. We have never seen this before and nobody we have spoken to have witnessed anything similar. Is this normal behaviour for blackbirds?"

 

[pduxon]

Welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy it.

Can't say whether its normal or not. Not something I've heard of. I'm sure Michael Frankis will be along shortly to tell us the life story of the blackbird uh Michael

 

[Michael Frankis]

Blackbirds eating frogs is known, but not common. I've seen it mentioned as a rare food item in one or two books.

Must admit, I thought from the title it was going to be a frog that was eating a blackbird . . . now that really would be unusual!

Michael

 

[Tony_InDevon]

Have to admit that at first I thought the same as you Michael, had visions of attack of the killer bunnie etc.

Either way it does not sound like a very attractive sight.

 

[birdman]

Hi Katrina (?)

On behalf of Admin and the Moderators, let me Welcome you to BirdForum.

As you can see, you have already had some feed back on your question. I hope (expect) there will always be a member who can help you out with any birding query you have.

However, we are also a worldwide community of enthusiasts, so please feel free to contribute to the site with any birding information you can provide, even if it's just a few posts about the birds in yours, or you parents' garden.

Most of all...

Enjoy!

:t:

 

[Nina P]

Hi Katrina, I do know Blackbirds eat tadpoles, and have also witnessed this phenomenon, but they usually only take this years hatchlings whilst still small, but they get too tough after about ten days they stop.
I believe it is in the period of soft fruit shortage, when they also need some meat and fruit that this strange thing goes on, still feeding late broods, and worms hard to find is generally the reason, but there are those that find this a delicacy that do this every year. My Blackbirds eat slugs during this period fortunately and tend to leave the little frogs alone.
One question to ask you, do your parents water the garden? and if they do, what hour of day? this may lead to a better time to water which will result in keeping the frogs.
Respectfully, Nina.

 

[Elizabeth Bigg]

Hi Kingkatrina, you had me really worried there - and I see Michael and Tony were similarly concerned.

I have not seen blackbirds taking frogs, but a couple of years ago I called to our rather tame robin that his mealworms were ready for collection - he arrived promptly with something in his mouth. I was quite upset when he spat out a tiny little frog, and took some mealworms instead. OK - I know that is just the way wildlife is - but this was the first year our tadpoles had shown signs of making progress in the life cycle, and this one was cut off in his prime!!

 

[Nina P]

I have just noticed you are in Wales, this phenomenon that I witnessed happened in whitchurch Cardiff, two back gardens blackbirds gobbling up the froglets that were hopping all over the garden, thousands of them, and my Mother screaming Nina HELP as she was hysterical with them jumping all over the garden. Funny how some folks are scared of the least things, she used to scream for me when there was slowworms, grass snakes, frogs, toads, moths and all sorts, I don't think she ever calls any other member of the family for these things!! Nina.

 

[saluki]

A letter from an old 'British Birds':

"On 10th June 1953 I was surprised to see a Blackbird carrying a large frog in my garden at Birkenhead, Cheshire. The bird alighted, and proceeded to peck at the frog about the abdomen and legs. I rushed at the bird in an attempt to scare it off, so that I could examine the prey, but it flew off carying the frog by one leg. I am aware that small frogs are known as prey of the Blackbird, but this was a full-sized specimen which must have measured at least 2 inches long in the body.

R. J. Raines"

Personally, I would think that tiny frogs might be a fairly common food item, but that it would be very difficult to acertain what the Blackbirds were eating unless watched very closely - Nina's observation perhaps points to this. Katrina's dad's observations perhaps point to the habit of catching larger frogs as being a learnt behaviour, as his neighbours witnessed similar incidents. I wonder why they stopped eating the frogs after such a short period? Unless the frogs were toads and it took the Blackbirds a while to figure out they didn't taste too good!

saluki

 

[kingkatrina]

thanks for all your help. sorry about the absence of the hyphen in the subject line.

Here's my Dad's response

"I have read the answers to your query on the Bird Forum and they were very interesting, thank you. I think the frogs may well be toads and they were very much larger than newley hatched froglets, so maybe the blackbirds did stop because they didn`t like the flavour. There are still plenty of toads/frogs around of all sizes."

He also told me that he does not water the garden much as it has been so hot this summer it does not really make any difference unless you water for hours.

Katherine

 

[Nina P]

Too right there, but I am still developing this one and so watering is still a must for most of the less established plants I have and a lot of them are quite valuable, so I spend a good few hours an evening watering, and always when the sun has passed them not to return until the following morning.
I have seen many people watering in the height of the day, and this will bring out the frogs too early thus increasing the risk of loss to predation, hence the query. Nina.

 

[rka]

Over here in Trinidad I've seen Grackles and Anis eating skinks, lizards and geckos.

 

[Beverlybaynes]

A first for me this last May was seeing a Blue Jay land on a nearby branch and start pecking and hacking away at something sizeable (couple of inches, anyway). He seemed quite determined, so I raised my binos was surprised to see he had a frog, now being bashed out of existence.

Had never seen anything like it before.