Saturday 14 May 2011

Quasibirdo?

In much the same way as my dad's stamp collecting hobby never quite gained the status of philately, I would never call him an amateur ornithologist - but he does love his garden birds.

It is a bit of a standing joke that my dad will excitedly jump to attention saying "Jilly! Look, Jilly!" to his ever faithful wife as he points out a very ordinary bird exhibiting very ordinary bird behaviour.

Today, however, I have to say his "Jilly! Look, Jilly!" cry was the start of a bit of excitement.

I really wasn't quite sure what I was looking at as he pointed out a young bird in my garden. I grabbed my camera and my long lens and tried to capture a few shots to make sense of what I was seeing. I'm still not completely sure.


Was it some sort of tumour, a strange conjoined twin phenomenon or do you get hunchbacked birds?

The strangely deformed feathered fellow seemed quite happy hopping around the lawn and even posed for a few more photographs.





I've certainly never seen anything like it before in my garden. Any ideas?

5 comments:

  1. I'm guessing it's some kind of tumour by the way those side feathers aren't covering it..did you see it fly at all, perhaps it's too heavy to fly? Maybe you will have to take care of it, we looked after 'Ben the bird' for a short time after he fell out of a nest on our house, we fed it with a syringe but when we went out he took flight off the end of the treadmill.....god rest his soul!

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  2. oh my gosh! I've never seen anything quite like that, we had a starling over winter come to the bird table with what looked like a tiny hump or more like something making the feathers stick up, nothing like your bird.
    you could try sending the photos to RSPB or springwatch to see if they know :/

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  3. The photographs are brilliant and it is the first time that we have ever seen a juvenile Blackbird deformed in this way.

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  4. You should see if you can email them pictures to the BTO or RSPB and see what they say about it!

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  5. No idea! But fab photos!! x

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