LETTER: ‘Rather striking rare bird visiting my garden for about two weeks’

I believe that a rare bird has started to frequent my garden and I would like to do the right thing and advise those who may have an interest.

I am not an ornithologist, but a rather striking bird has been visiting my garden for about 2 weeks.

He/she seems to be ever present. After the first few spottings I carried out some literature research to see whether I could identify the bird but none of the images of common birds appeared to match.

I then started to ask a few questions and delved a little deeper into my research but still to no avail until yesterday when the said bird landed on my back lawn and I has able to take a number of photographs (attached).

From these photographs I had a much clearer picture of what I was researching. The bird is about the size of a Blackbird with a similar yellow beak and yellow rings around its black eyes.

Armed with this information and the photographs I did some further ‘picture matching’ with pictures from the internet and as a result I believe that the bird is a partial Albino Blackbird.

There does appear to be various views as to whether this analysis is correct. Indeed, there are also various views as to whether this bird is rare at all.

To this end, I would like some professional input and advice to confirm whether my conclusions are correct.

Apologies for the quality of the photographs and I will endeavour to take some more if the opportunity arises and they are of interest.

This work has proven very enlightening and educating given the current circumstances and I trust you will be able help?