This little bird is an occasional visitor to our garden. It is about the size of a sparrow but has a bald head.
Agreed. Dunnock.
Hi,
Looks like a blackbird, which may appear to be smaller due to lacking a lot of its feathers.
Rob
It only seems to be the head that is missing feathers. Hopefully the video above works (it didn't appear in the original post for some reason).
Looks like a Dunnock to me (from the video). Poor thing. It's not unusual for adult birds (esp those that have had the strain of raising a family) to start looking a bit 'patchy' at this time of year as they begin their moult but this is quite extreme, it may have a bad case of feather mites.
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Thanks for the replies, a Dunnock it is then. This picture was taken today, he still visits occasionally and is still bald.
Great video and pics RedRed!
I remember a post done by 'chaisc' featuring a head-featherless bird (a Robin.) It was called 'Help Identify Scruffy Bird', but it was posted way back, on the 24th of April. And that was my second day on the forums!
Anyway, I'm definitely with Robbo. It's definitely a Dunnock, no doubt about it. I saw it in the video, briefly captured next to some House Sparrows. It doesn't have the same upperparts as the Sparrows and the beak is thin and black. On the Sparrows, they have thick black bills (ruling them out as a possibility) and the adult Blackbirds have all-purpose yellow beaks (also ruling them out as a possibility.) Even the juvenile black birds differ in the fact that they have much darker brown upperparts and thicker black beaks.
I hope this helps, even though you already have a verified answer,
All the best.
HK.