Hello everyone,
Today I saw a bird in the garden that caught my eye and imagination in a way that no other bird ever has. I am not an expert or even an enthusiast and usually the birds come and go and they are lovely to look at but I could not tell you what any of them are called. The only bird I could identify is a sparrow, just to give you some idea of my level of knowledge. I thought I would consult your combined wisdom in the hope that you could identify the bird that I saw. It may be the case that it is nothing special, some kind of starling maybe, but in any case, I would love to know. Unfortunately, when I first saw this bird (it was eating a fat ball) I did not have my camera handy. If I had then I would be able to show you a good clear picture. I went to get my camera in case it came back, it did, and I took a few pictures. I am sorry for the quality of the pictures, my camera is not the best and it did not return to a spot that would enable a decent picture anyway. Here are the pics. Please follow this link http://imgur.com/EO0HQet,RUVB1TA,CJpnQnD,8eZFVbL#0 .There are 4 pictures in the collection and you can navigate to the rest by clicking on Second picture, Third picture etc. Imgur is a reputable image hosting website (google it) if you were worried about following the link.
Some details about the bird: The bird had a very slender upper body/head/neck, the curvature from head to beak was virtually continuous . It had a very long, black beak (relative to it's head). It was totally black, apart from some slight light brown speckles towards the end of it's feathers. Around the head I noticed that the bird was shiny/glossy and had a very very slight tinge of purple. It was a startling beautiful bird and the reason I have taken to this forum is that my googling has proven unsuccessful, including the bird identifier on this site. The birds that I have found to have similar features are Common Grackle, Glossy Starling, European Starling, Brewer's Blackbird. I just cannot find an image of a bird that looked exactly like the one I saw.
Any feedback is appreciated. I know the pictures do not give much idea of the colour and texture of the bird but maybe the shape will be recognisable to someone?
Thanks,
Jake.
Difficult to tell from the photos, but the second picture looks like the outline of a crow with a slightly overgrown beak.
I agree with Maisie. If it is one of the others you mention you'll probably need one of the "experts" on here to help as I've never heard of most of them!
Gill
Hi Jake, where did you take the pictures?
Looks like a Carrion Crow with an elongated deformed beak.
Thank you for your responses.
@Stuart Vine The pictures were taken in my back garden which is in the West Midlands.
Hmm crow seems to be the general consensus. I have looked at some pictures of a carrion crow and I can't say that any of them jump out at me as being similar to the bird I saw. None of the pictures show crows as having any pattern or the shiny/glossy purplish texture that this particular bird had. The photos I took are unfortunately useless in conveying colours and textures. I wish I had a better picture! I will be at the ready with my camera if it returns.
It looks like a Tanager which is probable an escapee to dark to see which one but the beak is far to thin and long for a corvid.
Starling.
Unknown said:Starling.
Duh... now that you say starling, yes, the body and beak shape are right for a starling. For some reason I thought it was bigger.
Yes now I have highlighted it is a starling with a big beak.