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WHEN IS A BLACKBIRD NOT A BLACKBIRD?

We all know what a Blackbird looks like, don't we? We should do as there are over ten million of them in the UK. You might even have seen one today. It's a bird. And it's black. And it has a bright yellow beak like a banana, right? Well...

That's a typical description of many male Blackbirds, yes. But what if he's a migrant that has flown in from continental Europe? Then his beak might be as black as his feathers. Or it might be that he's a youngster and his beak hasn't got it's full colour yet. A juvenile's nose might be all black too, or perhaps there are bits of black streaking mixed in with the main colour.

But which colour? Surely all blackbirds have yellow noses? Well many do, yes, but some are orange or perhaps a lovely shade of pink. Other Blackbirds' beaks can be almost blood red, making them look like some kind of weird Chough. It could depend on where they come from, or what time of year you see them, or even what they've been eating.

So we can't rely on the colour of a Blackbird's beak. Ok, but what about its eye? Male blackbirds also have a lovely golden ring around their eyes, don't they? Well yes, they do. Apart from on the occasion when they don't. It's not guaranteed.

But at least blackbirds live up to their name. They're black. Usually. But they can be prone to albinoism too. That's where they have no pigment so they appear all white. Or they may just have white patches, or streaks among their black, or just a single white feather. That's leucism – unless the bird's black from head to tail as expected but looks like it's wearing a white vicar's collar. If that's what you've seen then it probably isn't a Blackbird at all, it's a much rarer Ring Ouzel.

If you see a brown blackbird then it's the female of the species, a brown bird. Unless it's a youngster of either sex, in which case it might be brown with a mottled chest, meaning that you might mistake it for a Song Thrush or Mistle Thrush. This isn't as daft as it might sound as the Blackbird belongs to the thrush family, the Turdus genus. These three birds all look generally similar, especially in silhouette, as do the winter visiting Thrushes, the Redwing and Fieldfare. And very young Blackbirds look quite a bit like a very young, but very large, Robins, as if things weren't complicated enough.

So to go back to the question in this week's title, When is a Blackbird not a Blackbird? It seems that the answer might be, When it's a Blackbird, but only sometimes.

This birdwatching game can be difficult, can't it? If a bird as common as a Blackbird can have so many obvious variations, it stands to reason that us less experienced birders can make identification mistakes sometimes. If that's you (and it's frequently been me), don't beat yourself up about it. Certainly don't let anyone else do that for you. Life's too short for that kind of rubbish.

Instead, learn from your own experience and be prepared to take instruction from anyone else, however unexpected the source might be. I've had misidentifications pointed out to me by everyone from small children to pensioners. Both groups taught me something. But don't be quick to assume that you're wrong and they're right. Keep your options, and your notebook, open all the time and, if there's any degree of uncertainty, check various sources before settling on a definite bird identification.

And most of all be prepared for the fact (and it is a definite, if sometimes hard to swallow, fact) that there are times that you will never know for certain which species of bird you have just seen. With there being nearly ten thousand different kinds of birds on the planet, I'm surprised that it doesn't happen more often. Sometimes you just have to say, “I have no idea what that bird was but it was pretty cool”.

And it will be. They always are