I am happy

[golach]

not really a professional bird watcher, but an old friend has appeared back in the vicinity, he is a Blackbird, but this one is distinctive he has one pure white flight feather on his left wing, he is not scared of humans and does not mind us standing a few yards from him while he has his morning bath.
I had not seen him a lot this winter, so I thought he may have been caught by one of the many moggies that reside in this urban area, this will be his 4th year in the area, is this normal for a Blackbird to live this long?

[Stefan]

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/expert/previous/blackbirds_live.asp

We have one that waits on the fence every morning for me to let the chickens out....free high protein food ;-)

Often see him sitting in the tree next to the garage. When we had -12C I found him sitting inside the garage on the beams.... clever chap.

[nemosia]

Glad your old friend has returned.

And here's a link to longevity records for a range of species based on ringing returns.

http://www.euring.org/data_and_codes/longevity-voous.htm

[Anji]

That's really interesting, nemosia.
Most birds live for much longer than I expected.

[WeeBurd]

What a fascinating link, nemosia, thank you for sharing it with us. I'm utterly stunned at the Oystercatcher - over 43yrs old! :)