Another bird ID please

[Jofin]

I am new to this site and posted on the blog page and now find there is also a forum! What's the difference between then?

I copy here what I posted there. Someone else started this one:

"identification of bird
Posted Today at 09:13 AM by derek george
Please can anybody help me. A very different bird visited our garden yesterday. It was a little bit bigger than a blackbird, grey head, yellow beak, really black eyes, russetty yellow mottled coloured throat, grey underneath with white flashes on his wings and a shortish tail thrush like in shape, sounds a bit like a fieldfare but it wasn't. Also wondered whether it was a migratory bird that had been blown off course due to the snow storms and winds."


And my response:

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It sounds very like the one that has been happily in our garden and our neighbours for 2 days. The beak was dark, not yellow. I thought it might be a fieldfare but it is chubby like a robin, blackbird sized, and on its own - fieldfares are flock birds. It has a black half-circle under its eyes. It is very assertive and the other birds are not at all sure about it!
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Posted Today at 11:38 AM by Jofin

Anyone on the forum have any ideas please?

[Gill Catton]

not sure about the first one, but yours definately sounds like a fieldfare, they do sometimes have a darker bill, it will probably sem plumper because it is wso cold at the moment and it will be fluffing up its feathers to keep warm. And they do hang out on their own sometimes too.


as for the difference between the forum and the blog, the blog is really for documenting your life - a bit like a public diary. The forum is for questions, discussions and conversation. almost everyone reularly checks the forums but far fewer regularly read the blogs, does that help?

[squishy]

the second could maybe be a large mistle thrush?
the first does sounds alot like a fieldfare.

[Jofin]

Thanks guys for your replies. I think it must be a plump and healthy fieldfare. It's much more colourful than a mistle thrush. I guess it came into the garden for food because the fields by us were so heavy with snow (and hundreds of sledgers!) Probably means it'll stop coming now It was a real joy to watch.

[squishy]

i've recently aquired () a regular fieldfare

[Jofin]

I shall have to make sure I put some berries out to make it feel more included!