Common Blackbird

Turdus merula

Order: Passeriformes
Family: Turdidae
Presence in the Strait: Resident
Abundance: abundant
IUCN (global): LC · Least concern
In Spanish: Mirlo común

Photograph: Luiz Lapa, CC BY, vía iNaturalist

Length: 24–25 cm
Weight: 100 g

Presence in the Strait

Abundant resident of scrub and woodlands.

Identification

Males are black with a long tail, orange bill, dark brown legs and yellow eye ring. Females are dark brown with a part orange-yellow bill. Juveniles are like females but with spotted underparts and a dark bill.

Movements

Local resident birds with juvenile dispersal in August and September. Foreign birds perform more conspicuous postnuptial migration with Turdidae Roquero Rojo Roquero Rojo Roquero Solitario Roquero Solitario Mirlo Capiblanco Mirlo Capiblanco Mirlo Común Mirlo Común peaks in 2nd hf. October, and less conspicuous but speedier prenuptial migration in 2nd hf. February.

Ring recoveries

Germany (3), France (3) and Switzerland (2).

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

13 %

Peak in April. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 9 April 1920
Latest record: 13 August 2026

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Not included
Spanish Catalogue: Not included
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: LC · Least concern · breeding
Global Red List (IUCN): LC · Least concern

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Phenology compared

Monthly distribution in proportion, by decade. It shows whether the passage is getting earlier or later.

1990–1999

2000–2009

2010–2026

Proportions, not totals: observation effort grew faster than any population.

Where they come from

8 birds ringed in other countries and recovered in the area.

Germany3
France3
Switzerland2

See the journey on the map

Same genus in the Strait

Ring Ouzel24–24 cm · Migrant · overlapping size
Song Thrush23–23 cm · Seasonal
Mistle Thrush27–27 cm · Resident
Redwing21–21 cm · Seasonal
Fieldfare25.5–25.5 cm · Occasional

Species of the same genus that also occur here, ordered by how close they are in size. Being relatives does not mean they are confused in the field, but that is where the doubts start: compare size and season.

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Turdidae
GBIF taxon key: 2490719

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: Luiz Lapa, CC BY, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Common Blackbird

Presence in the Strait

Identification

Movements

Ring recoveries

Gallery