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A lawn is not a lawn without a blackbird. It is one on the great sights of the suburban spring. The grass cut for the first time. The heart-lifting smell bringing sudden promise of summer and then the blackbird, black as the blackest thing in the world, sleek and glossy, banana yellow beak, moving purposefully about the lawn fishing for worms. Look closely, observe the yellow ring around the eye as well.

Blackbirds are great garden birds. They love the combination of open ground and cover that many gardens provide. They also like the combination of open ground and trees that is so beloved by municipal parks. One of the few birds that does. That is because they like to feed on the ground, sometimes hopping, sometimes running, generally in straight lines with lots of little pauses.

On lawn they look for worms and yank them out, pink and wriggling. They find them by listening and by looking, standing still between hops. Once it has found a worm, a foraging blackbird is likely to stand in the same place for a while because once you have found one quite often you have found several.

Blackbirds study the habits of worms as if their lives depended on it and for the best of reasons.

The CD of A Bad Birdwatcher's Companion by Simon Barnes is available at a special Times Online discounted rate from Naxos AudioBooks. The slideshows to accompany extracts from the audiobook's first five chapters have been created by Times Online with pictures supplied by the RSPB.

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