Well my excitement has been curtailed,sadly the county recorder has identified this bird as first
song thrush then blackbird,now I am giving him the benefit of the doubt.
The only people on side are Paul Lewis,Joan Thompson and Lee Evans ,who says its the strangest
blackbird he has seen.My First gut feeling was Naumanns Thrush this is Lees line of thought,
I was swayed by a Dark Throated Thrush of atrogularis species,obviously not being an expert on the
Turdus family,although I have seen a few species worldwide.
So here is what I think it is a cross bred Naumanns or Dark throated/Dusky.Looking at my picture
the bird has a pronounced supercillium and Malar stripe also some reddish tinge.The classic pose
he recalls Naumanns as it sits on the fence.Another shot here of the strange one.Finally head down note bill and head is this a song thrush or blackbird?.
Here are some other shots of Siberian visitors.
Dusky Thrush female.
Hybrid Dusky Thrush in flight.
Naumanns thrush note bill.
Naumanns thrush see the variation .I have not given up yet.
Hi Steve
ReplyDeleteThis interesting bird was drawn to my attention whilst we were setting up to record a Conference Call for Talking Naturally last night. My reaction was "It's a female Blackbird" and I absolutely stick by that. One huge black(bird!) mark against it being a mega from Siberia is the primary projection - very short, as in Blackbird (compare to the last pic of Naumann's above).
Here are a few female Blackbirds on a par with yours:
http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biocons/gardenbird/images/female_blackbird.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrfelinfoel/6326654259/
http://webirdnorthwales.blogspot.com/2011/03/odd-female-blackbird.html
http://www.birdforum.net/opus/images/thumb/f/fa/Blackbird_Female_1.jpg/350px-Blackbird_Female_1.jpg
One other thing - the image labelled 'Dusky Thrush female' looks a lot more like Pale Thrush to me (common winter visitor in Shanghai, where I lived for 2 yrs) - don't think the leg colour is compatible with Dusky, and the face is too bland.
Cheers
Nick