Small Bird With White Breast

JonnyAlpha · #1 (**permalink**) 29-05-2011, 06:46 AM

Hi, yesterday I saw a bird I had never seen before. It was about the same size and dark colour of a starting but had a brilliant white breast. It flew in and landed in the shallow of a stream and was having a drink. The breast was completely white.
Any ideas.

Tursiops2 · #2 (**permalink**) 29-05-2011, 06:51 AM

Sounds like a Dipper (or, just possibly, Ring Ouzel). Was this in an upland area?

T2

sunnydale · #3 (**permalink**) 29-05-2011, 07:09 AM

Yes, I thought Dipper too!

JonnyAlpha · #4 (**permalink**) 29-05-2011, 07:55 AM

Just looked at pictures of both a dipper and a ring ouzel. And I'm not sure. It could have been an ouzel but the breast seemed to run up the neck like a dipper. But the.picks I've seen of dipper have ready brown on the wings and this did not. I spotted it in a river in a village in North Devon the village "Braunton" is not far from a river estuary on the west coast.

david156 · #5 (**permalink**) 29-05-2011, 08:14 AM

I was thinking Dipper too. Could it have been a juvenile Dipper which are darker and plainer colour than the adults.

Here's a picture of an adult and a juvenile taken a couple of weeks ago in the peak district. This is a very young bird still being fed by its parents but being in Devon, your Dippers could be a older as they may have nested slightly earlier than the Derbyshire birds.

Cheers David.