Blackbird Hunt: All you need to know if you want to dedicate yourself to hunting the now widespread blackbird.
Better known as Blackbird, Turdus Merula is one of the best known birds in Italy. It is found practically in any habitat: gardens, meadows, Mediterranean scrubs, vineyards, vegetable gardens, woods, city parks, are just some of the situations in which the blackbird is able to proliferate. It will be for this surprising spirit of adaptation that is present not only in Italy, but practically throughout Europe and in a large part of Asia. A sedentary and double-pitched species, the Italian blackbirds, with the exception of those that inhabit the Alps, are sedentary. Relative to the less common migratory specimens, these come to Italy from North Eastern Europe: from the Hungarian area, the Czechoslovakian territory, Belgium, France, England and Denmark.
Recognizing a migratory blackbird from a sedentary one could prove to be particularly simple: it seems in fact that birds with short and rounded wings are generally sedentary, unlike those with pointed wings. Furthermore, migratory blackbirds show different habits compared to those of sedentary Italian blackbirds: in general, migratory birds prefer to stop on trees with tall trunks, while sedentary or pasturoni prefer to stop in much lower areas. For the species that live in the areas adjacent to the Alps, the autumn migration reaches its peak just as that of the thrush comes to an end, while the review is rather earlier than that of the song thrush and has already ended in mid-February.
Although the autumn migration is not as clear as in the other species, the stalking hunters are well aware that between October and November there is a copious movement of blackbirds. Given the distrust of the bird, the majority of those that fall under the blows of hunters are represented by the youngest specimens, recognizable by their dark gray color. Unfortunately, information on the sedentary and migratory attitudes of these fabulous birds is scarce given the few studies carried out on the subject.
Blackbird hunting techniques:
Generally speaking, it is possible to say that in Italy, roaming hunting is not particularly profitable and for this reason it is not practiced. Interesting results can be obtained only in the early opening periods of the hunt, when a certain abundance of young specimens appears, however, they prove to be particularly intelligent and able to develop in a very short time fine techniques to circumvent human traps. The natural aptitude to place natural obstacles between itself and the shotgun makes the blackbird a prey that is not at all easy to capture, whose hunt begins during the first days of opening around the vineyards, on the edge of the woods or in the border areas of the scrub. Mediterranean.
The excellent hearing of the bird makes it necessary to hunt in pairs: to beat the ground it is always better to be two, so that one hits an area, the other another area, leaving in the center the territory in which it is located. assumes there are blackbirds. This way you will have a better chance of getting some results. After the autumn period, hunting for blackbirds becomes almost impossible as the bird becomes rather reluctant to take flight: it is its instinct to advise it, not wrongly, to remain hidden as much as possible among the vegetation, and the blackbird proves to be in able to fly close to hedges and ditches, barely showing itself. Hunting from the hut proves to be more rewarding, as long as you have good calls caught at the end of August. They will have to be trained by keeping them in isolated rooms in the company of other already trained blackbirds; the new blackbirds by imitation will perfect the technique in a few months.
The hunter who has proven to be able to train good calls will have some chance of success: the advice for those who choose to devote themselves to hunting from the hut is to hunt at dawn and have an excellent alertness. In fact, the blackbird usually silently approaches the call, first stopping at a short distance and then approaching the trap with a short jump. It therefore becomes essential to be able to shoot quickly and without errors since, once the branch is abandoned, the blackbird will never return. During the hunt it is also not recommended to show up even just to collect the killed birds: the effect would be of definitive abandonment of the place by the whole group.
To conclude, we would like to remind you that the rifle and caliber to choose vary according to the type of stake out, although in principle a 10 lead can be recommended.