Help identify bird, I've looked in all the books!

[theanimallover]

Hi,
I've looked through my Collins Complete Guide and also on the bird identifier on this site, but can't find the bird we have just seen in our garden.

I'm excited to see a new bird on our feeders. Generally we have our own flock of sparrows (40 plus at times), lots of hungry starlings, robin, blackbird and family, occassional wren, chaffinches, blue tits, great tits....

OK, it was the size of a sparrow or slightly larger, it had a black head (totally black) and a greyish body, with black bits on it.

The nearest I could find in my Collins book was a black cap, but it was definately not one, we watched it for ages, and it's whole head was black. The nearest on this site was a Sardinian Warbler, but again it wasn't this bird.

Could we have had a rare visitor to our postage stamp sized garden? I'm really excited and can't wait to find out what he/she is!

Thanks!

[Jenny W]

Reed Bunting? - black head but the body isn't grey.

[theanimallover]

Thanks but definately not a reed bunting. It was quite a beautiful bird...I went to get my camera, but it was too late.

[agrumpycow]

Was it on the feeder? If not I'd suggest possible a juvenile pied wagtail.

[Adam Cheeseman]

Any other physical features noted at all. Bill shape and colour, length of tail, position of markings, colour of legs, behaviour, etc.

Cheers,

Adam

[Hedgehoggy]

Female Bullfinch? Had 3 fledglings being fed by dad in my garden today

[theanimallover]

Yes, the bird was on my feeder and didn't seem shy at all. Definately not a bullfinch.

Adam, ok it's difficult to describe, but me and my partner say it was sparrow shaped, and sized, it had a distinctive black head, to it's neck, and the grey body was perhaps a greeny grey, but definately grey, no colours. The tail again was dark grey like the body, but had some black lines in it too... it really didn't look like a British Bird.

Thanks.

[theanimallover]

Another thing...The bird was of solid colour. Solid black with solid grey.

[agrumpycow]

Marsh tit?

[theanimallover]

No, not a marsh tit! The bird I saw had a complete black head, not a cap.
It's head was totally black, it was sparrow shaped, it ate from the feeder, it had a solid grey body...