please name this bird

[brendashep]

Please can anyone identify the birds in the picture, especially the white one. It is so lovely and I haven't seen another one like it.

[keelo44]

Hi Brendashep,
Looks like they are starlings, and the white one is albino
... Steve...

[Jandy]

Going from the left in the first photo - adult starling, then the albino (but only a true albino if it has pink eyes, I believe), and finally a juvenile starling on the right.

[brendashep]

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. Don't know about the eyes will have to try and get a closer look !

[brendashep]

Been on Flickr tonight and saw other pics of birds. I have researched and I believe this is not now an albino but leucistic ?????????????

[Jandy]

I'm sure you are right, brendashep. Very often leucistic birds will be only partly white. I have seen plenty of blackbirds with white parts, but think an all-white bird would not be so common.

[thud]

There was a white, but not albino, Blackbird in Rufford Park, North Notts last year (or the year before - I loose track).

Quite a stir locally.

Incidentally JoM posted a shot of a white Starling to this forum towards the end of May 2009.

[hogey]

2561

2562
took these in my garden three years ago. Sorry for the poor quality but this bird was very elusive ! It was the only white bird amongst a brood of black birds being fed by the parents.

[Catscratch]

Hi Hogey,
Did you ever see the bird again?
We have had a blackbird with a couple of white tail feathers that we have seen two years running. I wasn't sure if the white feathers would disappear in the annual moult, but it looked to be the same bird and if it wasn't it had white feathers in the same place. Can anyone shed any light on this?

[hogey]

Hi Catscratch,
I saw the bird a few times over a period of about three weeks but i've never seen it since.

[chilternbirder]

Like Jandy I have seen many blackbirds with white patches, never an all white one but once one with so much white that it made me thing of a giant snow bunting.