NOT SO BLACK AND WHITE.

My sister, who lives in Wem Shropshire, has phoned to ask for help to i.d. a bird she saw at her Bird Feeder. She's pretty good at identifying birds and knows their habits etc. The bird feeder is probably only 25 yards from where she observes the birds and she also uses a 8 X 32 set of Binoculars I bought her for this Christmas so she could see the bird in question clearly. But this bird is not in her comprehensive Bird Book.

Here's her description of the bird:

Slightly less the size of a Starling
Patches of black and white
Bright red legs
The beak being possibly dark in colour.

Anyone any ideas????

 

Thanks, Spruce. The problem is that my Sister is pretty knowledgeable regarding the identification of birds and for something to "stump" her it would have to be pretty unusual. She has a theory it might be something being blown off course and brought into the UK by the continuing storms.

 

Hi Sheal, thanks for that.........but what seems to stand out for me is the description of Bright Red legs which seems to set it apart from every day birds.

 

Just don't come back with a Twitch!!

 

Hi Fern, unfortunately not. She wasn't the only person to see it, give the same description and be at a loss to identify it.

 

Thanks Spruce. To be honest, I'm curious too as it's not often my sister can't identify a bird. That one looks likely a candidate. We've had a lot of Westerly Winds and it's, to me, a possibility.

I saw a bird around 3 years ago while fishing in Rutland in a particularly Wildlife friendly and remote spot that still flummoxes me. It sat on the middle of my Fishing Rod about 6' away quite boldly and I got a really good look at it for several minutes trying to figure what it was but...........!!!
It was the size of a Pied Wagtail, but the mixture of black and white over it's back and wings was completely different. It had a brown speckled chest and a tail that was much longer than a Wagtail plus it didn't walk around like a Wagtail does. Still can't figure out what it was