When is a blackbird not a blackbird? (1 Viewer)

[Kitalon]

Please can you take a look at this photo and see if you can identify this bird.

It was spotted outside the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK earlier this month.

At first glance it looks just like a male blackbird, but it has a more orangey beak not yellow, with some distinctive orange rings around the eyes. Also note that it has a couple of white flecks on it's back. It's definitely not as large as a chough but about the size of a blackbird.

I'm wondering if it is a juvenile male blackbird with a touch of albanism but I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

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[Welsh Peregrine]

Certainly a Blackbird (Turdus merula).

 

[Nick-on]

Please can you take a look at this photo and see if you can identify this bird.


At first glance it looks just like a male blackbird, ....... but about the size of a blackbird.

I'm wondering if it is a juvenile male blackbird with a touch of albanism but I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

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My thoughts are.......It is a Blackbird.

Nick

 

[tconzemi]

A full adult male Blackbird full of testosterone (orange bill and eye ring) with some leucism (white feathers on the back

 

[nartreb]

I'm not sure it has any white feathers - could just be shafts of sunlight. Presumably there are leaves overhead shading the rest of the bird.

For an illustration of how bright sun makes anything look white to the camera, look at the seeds and the wood along the lower edge of the photo, and the long diagonal leaf blade behind the bird.

 

[ChrisKten]

A few white feathers is quite common on most black birds... here's a male Blackbird from my garden the other day: