Partial Albino Blackbird

[Elleana]

Hello everyone, this is my first post

Yesterday we spotted what we now believe is a partial albino blackbird feeding in our garden. I managed to get some photographs of the bird today.

We have quite a lot of blackbirds feeding in our garden at the moment and some seem intrigued by the newcomer, others don't seem bothered & one is being aggressive, but he is aggressive to all of the other blackbirds that visit our garden anyway!

The partial albino blackbird is eating a lot of food (suet & live meal worms) & appears to lay down in the snow or on the garden posts as opposed to standing up tall like the other blackbirds generally do.

I cannot be sure if it is a male or female, it doesn't have the yellow rings around it's eyes though so am I correct in thinking it is probably a female? The bird is also quite shy & timid but it looks very well fed & it's feathers aren't at all tatty. Unlike the other blackbirds that visit our garden it is also eating wild bird seed which they don't eat...but maybe they're just spoilt!

It's markings are beautiful as they are really symmetrical like a butterfly! I'm not sure how to upload the photographs so if anyone can point me in the right direction that would be great!

[diggleken]

Hi Elleana and welcome, sounds like interesting pics - there do seem to be a lot of these birds about.
We all have probs uploading at first, but its easy once you have done it a bit - this link to another thread has some very good advice, partic on 5/7/09 at 5.03 by Lancashire Lad (Mike), so try that.
I'm sure others will help too.
Cheers
Ken
Help the Aged - that is me!!

[Dogghound]

Its not albinism but a leutistic bird this is not uncommon in blackbirds. These birds tend to do ok despite their colour differences. Always an interesting change to the local birds.