Woodland Bird unknown

[gil-rob]

3 or 4 months ago I posted a question on answer-bank asking if anyone could identify a bird I had been seeing in a small woodland by my home.
I e mailed RSPB a few days ago and they came up with the answer for me within an hour!
This is the reply:

Thank you for your email. From what you have described this bird sounds like it may be a partial albino female Blackbird. Partial albinism is caused by the failure of pigmentation to reach certain feathers. While this is often hereditary, other factors such as unbalanced diet, old age and injury, or even disease and shock can cause albinism. In hereditary cases the white pattern is consistent from one moult to another, but albinism caused by environmental factors is often reversible. Some examples of partial albino blackbirds are below

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/145/416857975_f 84e195469.jpg?v=0
http://www.bto.org/gbw/NEWS/PRESS/images/BLACK BIRD_D_CROMAN_001.jpg
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/gallery/file s/6/8/5/pen_181106_Blackbird.

I thought the people who got in touch with me would be interested to know what the bird was!

Thank you.. bensmum, echokilo, Avatar, cetti and jenniprice.

[bensmum]

Thanks for that gil-rob and glad that the RSPB could sort it out for you

[Kleiber]

Glad you got an answer! What a lovely bird!