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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jan-Paul Charteris" data-source="post: 1266174" data-attributes="member: 71800">Given that information, I’d say in likelihood that it’s a Woodpigeon with soiled plumage, this being very common in Feral Pigeons too that live in cities as opposed to ones in suburban and rural area. Of course dark Feral Pigeons occur in all populations, but in some city centres (e.g. London and Nottingham) a lot of the pigeons are noticeably scruffy and dark because of their environment too. A Woodpigeon living in the same environment would be just as likely to be affected. True melanism is also very rare, and an awful lot of reported cases end up being normal individuals with soiled plumage. Had never heard of this before but it certainly creased me up lol. Maybe if people spent more time trying to understand the species rather than shooting them. Reminds me of an ignorant shooter in Denmark (ok I confess he’s unfortunately my uncle) saying he needed to recommend to the local shooting council that Honey Buzzards needed to be culled as they were ‘too abundant’ and were having too big an impact on Hare numbers! Complete b*****ks whichever way you look at it, and I think he’d struggle to tell a Red-backed Shrike from a Honey Buzzard, let alone two superficially similar BOPs apart (oops, methinks my anti-hunting side coming out…<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />) I agree for same reasons I stated above, except soiled being far more likely than aberrant and not juv due to the presence of white neck patch (this being either not present in juvs or much reduced during a short transitional state)Anything’s possible but think you’re right with the funny Feral Pigeon theory…’fawn’ coloured ones aren’t very unusual. My ex girlfriend once gave a description of a bird in our old garden in Hampstead which sounded good for Collared Dove, but when I looked out the window there was a pale brown Feral Pigeon waddling around the lawn.Jan</blockquote>

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