Mad Blackbird

Question

I have a couple of pairs of blackbirds visiting my garden daily. They do not nest here because I have a cat (interested in mice usually). For several days last week I watched a male bird picking up dead leaves in his beak and running towards another male blackbird, then running back to where it had started and repeating this six or seven times. It then put down the leaf and picked up another and repeated this behaviour. There wasn't any real aggresion shown towards the other male bird, nor did the challenged bird respond with aggresion. There did not seem to be any vocal communication between them. It only seemed to do this behaviour with other males. Has anyone else seen this behaviour?

I'm always look forward to seeing the wonderful green of the leaf buds coming into life you don't see any other time of year and the first swallow around the 15th April. Spring, Spring Spring.

LloydScott · Accepted Answer

The behaviour you describe here will be part of the males display in attracting a mate and establishing a breeding territory. Breeding territories can be small and densely packed in optimum habitat such as parkland and gardens and much sparser in the open countryside. The song is given by the male only from late winter until the end of the breeding season and the time or onset of this behaviour is stimulated by changes in the weather - mild and damp conditions. 
 Both courtship and aggressive displays by the males appear very similar to the human observer. The most striking behaviour is humping up their back and rump feathers, as well as lowering, and fanning their tail. Displaying males have often been recorded picking up leaves or twigs sometimes persistently as you describe. This is most notable between autumn and spring and sometimes is seen in groups of up to 20 near to common roosting sites, suggesting "communal" displays also occur.