Saturday, January 31, 2015

Blackbirds Don't Tweet

Blackbird, via Micali, Livorno
It is said that the last three days of January are the coldest of the year and are called the “giorni della merla” (days of the hen blackbird). Legend says that all blackbirds were once white, until, in the last days of an very cold January, a hen blackbird took shelter with her chicks in a chimney. They got out on February 1st, all black because of the soot. Since then blackbirds wear proudly their black in sign of gratitude.
By the way, blackbirds don't tweet, but today we are celebrating our blog's 1,000th tweet...

See also: Giorni della merla - The Blackbird - A Blackbird
External links: The Merla Days (Italy Heritage)
Search labels: bird

17 comments:

Revrunner said...

Makes me always think of these Beatles lyrics:

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Michelle said...

You captured a handsome one!

Lois said...

Cute picture! Congrats.

William Kendall said...

This one looks quite alert!

Here these days of winter tend to be referred to as the dead of winter.

Randy said...

Great close up.

Lowell said...

Congrats on reading the 1,000 mark! That's a lot of posting! We don't see many blackbirds here, but we see a lot of crows. I like the legend.

Blackbirds must be about the only critter that doesn't tweet these days, except for me. I don't!

Jack said...

Revrunner has me humming Beatle songs. So, you tweet your blog posts, too? I am woefully behind in the technology of my blog.

Dina said...

That is a nice legend. I hope your giorni della merla are cold so you will have spring soon.
Mazal tov on your thousand tweets on Twitter (or as Israelis here pronounce it, Tweeter).

Karl said...

I didn't know the legend of the blackbirds, thanky you VP !
And congratulations to your 1000 tweets as well !

Luis Gomez said...

Wonderful. Love the legend.

Lois Evensen said...

Interesting legend! I never heard that one before.

Your title, though, made me think of basketball and jumping. ;)

PerthDailyPhoto said...

I'm not a tweeter VP, I wouldn't know how :) but congrats on your mile-stone! Enjoyed the legend of the blackbird :)

Birdman said...

A fine tale to go with the bird.

mattisaisa said...

We have some blackbirds here in Finland in the middle of snow and ice. We feed those, they eat near everything

cieldequimper said...

Les jours du merle... I love their song and I like the birds (boys and girls).

Bravo for the tweets!

RedPat said...

I like that story!

Babzy.B said...

hey i see ;)