Blackbird with black beak

[FUDGEY]

Came across this at weekend, is this just a Juv or is it an unusual colouration?

[htcdude]

I think it's a first year male, they still have the black beak.

Nige

[Dogghound]

This is a continental 1st year male, 1st year British birds still have orange/pale bills.

[Guinnessman1974]

This is likely a Scandinavian Blackbird, first winter, these birds have black beaks. You will likely see many more Blackbirds as well as our own breeding residents at this time of year.

[Bizzy Lizzy]

Great pic fudgey. What tree is this blackbird on? I want to plant some trees with berries and this tree looks excellent.

[htcdude]

Is ita Rowan Tree? I'm useless with trees but it's the only one I know with red berries

[FUDGEY]

I dont think its a true Rowan actually. im not to clued up on these things, but it may be an ornamental variety. The berries seem more succulent and not as much of a seed inside????? The waxwings prefer these to the others.

[Michelleatiisis]

We have got one of these too! i noticed the blackbird with a black beak in the garden this morning.... along with our yellow beaked bb friends!

[RKB]

Males (and females) in their first winter usually have these dark bills. You might also be able to see a brownish tinge to the wings (the flight feathers are still juvenile). I've read a few times that these dark-billed birds are "continental", but it's just age-related, not origin. There's no way of telling where a Blackbird is from by looking at it (and even measurements overlap too much to be certain for any one bird).

Older males and females have more orange bills, and in females this gets deeper after their first or second year, and can occasionally be as yellow/orange as the male. But look at any pic of a juvenile or moulting first-winter British bird and they are dark-billed too, along with first-winters from the Continent, so they don't differ in any way that allows you to say where they're from.

[SheffieldLass]

My understanding was that nearer the breeding season you can tell the continental male blackbirds from the British ones, because the continental ones don't develop their yellow eye-rings and beak properly until they return to their breeding grounds. The BTO info (which is probably where I read it) says this:

"Adult males are black in colour and in full breeding plumage show yellow eye-rings and bright bills. Adult males with duller bills and lacking yellow eye-rings at the start of the breeding season will be winter visitors, probably about to depart back to their own breeding grounds (where they will then develop the full breeding plumage). "

Blackbird

I've certainly noticed this in spring. I'll keep my eye open this winter, to see whether the blackbirds with dark bills are all this year's young (from the brown wing streak), or whether there are older ones with dark beaks. My resident bird has a glorious yellow beak right now. He is not too territorial with the dark billed ones, but with the next doors resident male he is.

I had read that the reason the continental ones don't have the bright yellow beak and eye ring is because they tend to flock more and are more mobile, so don't want to incite too much territorial behaviour from the resident birds.