All images by Paul Davis
Urban birder Paul Davis sent me this selection of images taken of a weird bird that he could not recognise coming to his feeder in his Mitcham garden in south London.At first I thought it was some strange escaped weaver species but closer examination, especially of its upperparts, left me thinking that it could be a melanistic male House Sparrow. Melanism is the opposite of albinoism and is rare in House Sparrows. In all my decades of watching them I have never seen a melanistic one, although I have seen albinoism and partial albinos. The grey patch on the crown of the depicted bird is totally consistant with that of a normal male House Sparrow. Furthermore, a search on the net resulted in me finding footage of another similarly plumaged bird on the continent. Paste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NgENqvdGcY and see what you think.
So, is it a House Sparrow?
Let me know what you think.
1 comment:
very hard to tell. from the shape of its face, it seems very likely that its a house sparrow. also it was found in south London which is jam packed with these beauties and makes it even more likely.
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