[Closed] Help me identify this bird (no pics unfortunately)

carol thatcher..?

juvenile woodpecker?

Jay?

What about a lapwing?

[img] [/img]

On that description I would go for a Jay as well.

I retract that, I read it wrong thought you said brown with a white head.

Young Jay?

i reckon it's most likely to be a juvenile passerine of some kind

Does sound like a Jay, quite stunning in flight.

[img] [/img]

Bit late in thruway for fledglings and juveniles is it not ?

not sure, i'm no expert. Don't some of the bigger birds get full plumage in their first breading season?

Dove with a dirty face?

There are a couple of Jay's around and about where we are. My first though was young Magpie and then perhaps a young Jay.

All the Jay pics that I have seen show the young birds to have at least some sort of Jay type markings.

This bird that I have seen does not. Also its brown head and upper neck markings start abruptly, like it's stuck its head in a tin of brown paint, if you get my drift.

The only bird I can think of that has the "head in a tin of brown paint" thing going on is the black headed gull. But that applies to its summer plumage only. In winter, the black head recedes to a small spots just behind the eyes.

Another possibility is the hooded crow but this is limited to Scotland, Ireland and parts of west Wales.

[img] [/img]

ring ouzel, has an abrupt ring around neck but not white all over

Definitely not a gull despite it's gull style paint job.

Just had a look on Google Images at pics of hooded crows, that's not either.

Where was it seem? on the ground, in a tree for example..

Did it have a long or short tail?
And did it make a call or any sort?

It's likely to have a leucistic condition so it's normal colourations aren't present.

Also did it appear to be alone or where there other birds present?

Have you tried any bird id sites?

like these...

[url] http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdidentifier/form.aspx [/url]
[url] http://www.birdid.co.uk/IdentifyBird.asp [/url]

albino blackbird. I get one in my garden all the time, mostly white body, with a black head.
almost a reverse of this one
[img] [/img]

I've just scanned through a couple of hundred photos of British birds, and I can't find anything at all that resembles that description, at that size. Plenty of small warbler size birds with light coloured bodies and dark heads, but no large birds. Possibly a non-native species blown in from elsewhere. Pity there's no pic, even a small one.

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Wasn't at an XC race by any chance?

Could have been a Jey.

IGMC.

You get a lot of these at this time of year.They are called the what the fu-- is that bird.

Albino Blackbird could well be the answer!

It looks pretty similar to this:

[img] [/img]

But almost completely white on the body and completely brown on the head.

To answer some of the Q's from above:

Where was it seem? on the ground, in a tree for example..

I've seen it on the ground, in a tree and in flight.

Did it have a long or short tail?

Short - so not an albino Magpie (unless it had lost it's tail feathers.

And did it make a call or any sort?

Nope.

It's likely to have a leucistic condition so it's normal colourations aren't present.

Also did it appear to be alone or where there other birds present?

Mostly seen on its own (in flight and in a tree) but when I saw it on the ground today it was hanging about with a Rook.

No luck with the RSPB bird identifier but the Bird ID picture of the Black Headed Gull is pretty close as far as the colouring is concerned. However, I know what a gull looks like and this mystery bird is definitely not a gull.

Thanks for heads up about the Albino Blackbird SA.

Do you know the colour of it's beak?

Do you know the colour of it's beak?

Not unkown for a Storm Petrel to find it's way inland, http://www.google.co.uk/m/search?site=images&source=mog&hl=en&gl=uk&client=safari&q=storm%20petrel#i=5