Another shot of Thursday's surprise visitor. Feel free to skip the detailed stuff below!
It looks like a male. From Opus: "T. t. torquatus (Northern): Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland and northwestern Russia; winters northwest Africa. Darkest subspecies, with males nearly black with minimal scaling on body feathers and narrow secondary fringes.
T. t. alpestris (Alpine): Mountains of central and southern Europe; winters to Asia Minor and northwest Africa. Body feathers with very obvious scaling; secondary fringes also more obvious."
The BTO says: "In Britain it [the Ring Ouzel] has a patchy and diminishing range from Dartmoor to northwest Scotland. These birds winter mainly in southern Spain and the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. Migrating Ring Ouzels, many of them from Scandinavia, are frequently seen in Britain well into November, sometimes in company with Redwings and Fieldfares, but are then mostly absent until the first breeders return in late March".
After all that, I'm still not 100% sure which subspecies this is, though the scaling favours alpestris. As far as ageing is concerned, the mostly dark bill and the brownish tinge to parts of the plumage (eg the tertials) may indicate a first-winter bird, but I'm no expert.
Britain has a breeding population of five to six thousand pairs of Ring Ouzels. In contrast, we have a breeding population of about six million pairs of Blackbirds.
Thank you for your kind comments on my pictures, and good birding!
John
