We have been giving winter feed for years to local birds.
These include mostly blackbirds, sparrows, dunnocks, greenfinches and silvereyes, but also some tuis and bellbirds, although other birds like kereru, grey warblers and fantails find their own food on our property.
In all this time, we have occasionally noted some birds that have characteristics of some sort that allow us to identify them.
But never before have we seen a blackbird that looks like the one shown in the attached photos.
We call him 'Nike' because of the white flash on his back, but it is the white goggles(?) or mask(?) that make him really stand out.
He has been one of our regular diners for a number of months now.
We wonder if others have seen any blackbirds like this one.
- Peter Schwartz
