odd looking blackbird

[tigerlily11]

Hello.
I was sitting in my conservatry yesterday and saw on the shed roof a blackbird.
Everything about it was a male blackbird, orange beak and so on.
But I noticed that it's head and white feathers round the cheek areas. It looked almost like a Miner bird. I know the have white wattles on the cheeks as I used to own one.
Can any one tell me is this some sort of mutation or something else. Maybe a sort of blackbird not common in the UK.
Thanks for your time.

[tigerlily11]

sorry that should be 'had white feathers.'

[welshlibranr]

We have a blackbird in our garden, he has white feathers too!............he's been here for the last four years, he's so handsome!..........

[Calibax]

Blackbirds can have white feathers.
http://www.rspb.org.u...ackbird/feathers.aspx

[tigerlily11]

Well as it was a while ago say about 30 years I forgot how to spell MYNAH ok.
Would u care to explain Leucism to us thickies.
Yes Welsh he is lovely but i haven't ever seen one like him before.

[Milvus]

There are two possibilities you could check
Ring Ouzel http://www.rspb.org.u.../ringouzel/index.aspx
Semi Albino Blackbird http://www.uksafari.com/blackbirds2.htm

[wildwood]

tigerlily, I can not think of a iIner bird (or even a Mynah bird) with white wattles. Was this a mutant?

Mutant blackbirds are quite common.
http://www.google.co....b=wi&biw=1383&bih=890

[wildwood]

It seems I have trouble spelling Miner too. lol

[wildwood]

Sorry MIlvus, you can not get a semi-albino anything. Your link is mistaken. The pied blackbirds around are indeed affected by leucism, but there are proper albino blackbirds where the melanin is missing.

[Milvus]

Semi or partial albinism is prevalent in birds, and is characterised by a lack of malanin in patches as shown in the pictures in the second link I provided. Leucism is a separate condition generally exhibited by an overall reduction in pigmentation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albinism_in_birds

[Milvus]

The term semi albino is used in the text above the bird with the white neck markings in the second link I gave. This picture seems to be close to Tigerlilly's description.

[Chaffinch]

Hi Tigerlily, its lovely to see common birds with different colour markings is'nt it. We have a black and white, almost spotted Jackdaw, around our village, he's been here for the last three years, and is very spoiled by everyone (we all feed him) just because he's different!!

[tigerlily11]

Hi and ty to every one that has answered. I looked at him through the binoculars yesterday cos I thought he was missing the feathers round his face but it looks to white to be that. He is a lovely little soul though.