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black bird white wing stripe (2 Viewers)

fritter

Member
Hi all

just seen a bird i've never seen before.
size of blackbird, mostly black, but with clearly defined white bib on front and thick white stripe at base of wings, white underside to wings and a kind of hover-type flight.

i live in boscombe, south coast, uk

any ideas?
 
Hi,
Any way you could illustrate this with a quick sketch?
"thick white stripe at base of wings, white underside to wings"
Cheers - Tim
 
Apart from size estimate being ''blackbird size'', location, flight and colour description, makes Pied Flycatcher a good possibility
 
thanks all

i am not an 'enthusiast' but have been watching birs in an informal way for 40 years, it is not a pied wagtail, i regularly watch them roosting. besides the flight of the PW is distinctive. the flight was unusual but difficult to pin down, i'd say it had some of the characteristics of a flycatcher kind of mid air stumbly hover.

i have looked at bird books and internet photos and it doesn't resemble a ring ouzel.

we were about 10 metres away from this bird and watched it for 2 or 3 minutes. i cannot recall the beak or legs in terms of colour, but this was blackbird size. i have looked at all the photos of albino blackbirds i can find and none match it. are there symetrical ones? the wing stripes were symetrical, the bib distinct and the underwing when it flew was white, both sides the same.

for anyone local to here it was at the bottom of boscombe chine gardens by boscombe pier.

my thoughts were that it was probably an escapee but it didn't look like anything caged i've ever seen.

the mystery continues.
 
could it possibly have been a lapwing?? I have seen these thousands of times and found them really easy to id until i saw one in flight it totally baffled me.
 
i am not an 'enthusiast' but have been watching birs in an informal way for 40 years, it is not a pied wagtail, i regularly watch them roosting. besides the flight of the PW is distinctive. the flight was unusual but difficult to pin down, i'd say it had some of the characteristics of a flycatcher kind of mid air stumbly hover.
fritter, I think perhaps you may have misread deborah4's suggestion of Pied Flycatcher? It sounds like quite a good match from your description. Pictures in the gallery here.
 
What a handsome bird. Are they common in Britain?

Hi Dave,
Summer visitors that have a tendency to inhabit the western side of England and Wales, arriving in mid to late April along the south coast. Turn up in good numbers, but where I live in Hertfordshire, eastern England, they are a very unusual sight, only seen on passage in most years. From memory, only one recorded in Herts this spring. One reserve in mid Wales is well known for them where they breed alongside common redstart, another rarity in my neck of the woods
regards,
Jono
 
Black and White Black Bird

We have a blackbird with white markings living on our lane. Everyone looks amazed when the first see him. He has quite a lot of random white feathers on him.

He looks quite strange but is definately a blackbird, I will look out and see if I can get a piccie of him.

Steve
stevetheduckblog
 
thanks all again
i did misread the post, thanks for pix but it definately wasn't a pied flycatcher nor a lap wing.

will go later and see if i can see it again and take a snap
 
Hi apart from the description of the flight it sounds like a partial albino Blackbird hope its still there and you get a photo
 
the flight was unusual but difficult to pin down, i'd say it had some of the characteristics of a flycatcher kind of mid air stumbly hover.

This would make blackbird less likely I would think. Given the symetrical distribution of white, the only other bird that loosely fits, could be male Stonechat, they can be very dark/black looking, with white wing bars, and flight is often a 'hover'.

Worth bearing in mind, size in field difficult to judge and comparing from memory a bird seen in flight with still photos (especially in sedentary position) after the event is not always the easiest way to pin down an Id. Fieldnotes next time ;)
 
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