{"id":1521862,"date":"2017-06-12T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?guid=00c5b484f3cfbb32d88fc5d3ffefd70a"},"modified":"2019-12-23T01:20:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T12:20:37","slug":"breeding-black-redstarts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/breeding-black-redstarts\/","title":{"rendered":"Breeding Black Redstarts"},"content":{"rendered":"

My posts all refer to the previous day at the moment \u2013 a good sign as I am obviously being kept busy. I am really knackered by long trips and survey work so had no big ambitions for yesterday (and left early for Hedmark this morning). I ended up cycling into town to see if I could get to grips with the Black Redstart situation. Singing males are regularly reported from two different areas of the city but there are possibly more than single males in each area. I have tried a few times before to find these birds but haven\u2019t succeeded (although did happen upon another male in another area).<\/p>\n

Today I heard I didn\u2019t hear any birds in the Youngstorget area but when I got to the Myntgate area I heard and then saw a male well. He was a very fine and striking older male and eventually flew down from his song perch on a TV aerial into a small park. Here we was feeding and showed well on the ground. After a while I then saw another red tail fly up but this was a female and with food in here beak. She disappeared out of sight but must have gone into a nest in a nearby building. My attention then got distracted by a sub song singing acro warbler (not what you expect to find in June in the city centre) which after a lot of help from my friends would appear to be a Reed Warbler although I though Marsh for a while.<\/p>\n

When I returned to the Black Reds again I found both male and female feeding on the ground although they failed to lead me to their nest although would frequently disappear behind buildings. The male also sang quite regularly. He had a favourite perch on a TV aerial but did sing from other roof tops and from low down and covered an area of at least 150 metres. I also saw him chasing a female plumaged Black Redstart at one stage but couldn\u2019t be certain if it was his female (why chase her) or whether it was an intruding bird (a 2cy male?).<\/p>\n

The views I had were the best I can remember for this species in Norway. I only had the superzoom with me so the still shots aren\u2019t as good as I would have hoped for but the video ain\u2019t too bad.<\/p>\n

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the adult male Black Redstart (svartr\u00f8dstjert) – quite a smart bird. The brown tinge to the flight feathers is menat to be a sign of immaturity but everything else about this bird screems adult<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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almost looks like a different bird from this angle but I’m quite sure it is the same bird<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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its favoured song post<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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and the female!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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female again<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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