Re: Can Anyone Identify This Individual?

Two options here, house sparrow with a plumage aberration (not sure which - black chest could be explained by a melanistic gene and erythristic birds show a chestnut red colour), the form seems to fit this bird and the beak looks very house sparrow, definitely not dunnock. The second explanation could be an escapee cage bird, although I have not found an exact match just yet. We often get reports of escapee's tagging along with sparrow flocks.

Certainly an unusual looking bird, I had a quick check around on google and found a Red Headed Finch which seems to share a lot of the features on your bird, its also known as the Red Headed Weaver and they are bred so possibly an escapee?

http://www.efinch.com/species/redhead.htm

http://www.birdwatching.com.na/gallery/gallery2/birding_i.jpg

Shane

I believe that this is an aberrant male House Sparrow - though I've never seen anything quite like it illustrated anywhere.

The other possibility is that it is some sort of hybrid - and whether it is a hybrid or aberrant, it is possible that it could be something bred by an aviculturalist.

(There is no species of finch, sparrow, or bunting that has this appearance, and I'm pretty sure there are no weavers that look this way either.) 

what a bout a house finch looks like it likes hanging with sparrows

Melanistic House Sparrow

Agree some kind of Spice Finch escapee!

Spice finch?

monkeycheese

There are two more photos in the 'Early Birds' gallery. What is the species?

How'd I miss this thread? What a spectacular-looking bird. I'm with those who say aberrant male House Sparrow. Excessive eumelanin (ie melanism) in the normally grey parts of the plumage would perhaps produce this appearance. Can see why it recalls Spice Finch but that species is noticeably smaller than House Sparrow with a proportionately very deep bill. Also Spice Finch has pale belly feathers with dark fringes, this looks to be the other way around.

Looking at the pic prior to reading the thread + an 'odd' coloured house sparrow sprung to mind. It seems to have lots of the markers you'd look for but just a load darker. Great spot.

The same bird has been back almost every day for the past week (at least I have seen it almost every day). I managed to get a few more photos this morning. They are in my gallery. There's a male house sparrow on the feeder too which gives a good size and plumage comparison.

Have you reported this to the BTO's unusual plumage survey? If not the link is below, it would be interesting to hear if they agree with all of our suggestions!

http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw/about/background/projects/plumage

aiki

I'm with those who say aberrant male House Sparrow. Excessive eumelanin (ie melanism) in the normally grey parts of the plumage would perhaps produce this appearance.

I can't see that this is anything but a House Sparrow.

As for the underlying cause of the unusual colouration, who knows! Excessive eumelanin would explain the underparts and cheeks, it's not affecting all the grey areas though because the crown remains grey (more easily visible in the newer photos). There is also more extensive reddish brown colouring in the upperparts, which may be an excess of phaeomelanin.

I emailed Hein van Grouw (author of the Dutch Birding paper on colour abnormalities, I've been in touch with him before about peculiar birds posted on here and he's always been very helpful) earlier, asking him to take a look at this thread. He's just replied, and agrees the bird is a House Sparrow with a form of melanism - he sent me a photo of a near identical individual from the Netherlands mating with a female House Sparrow.

He's also asked if it would be OK to use one/some of the photos in a paper he's working on, so I'll send monkeycheese a PM about that :)