In message , Spider
writes
I saw an interesting blackbird perched on my Exochorda earlier. It was a
male, being totally black, had a yellow beak but no yellow eye ring.

I had always understood that the British black bird was black with yellow
beak and eye ring and that the european blackbird was also black, but with
brown beak and no discernible eye ring.

Have I always got this wrong, or could British and european blackbirds be
cross-breeding? .... or another explanation.

Spider

A male bird hatched this year will probably not yet have developed the
yellow eye ring of the full adult. You may find posting this to
uk.rec.birdwatching more productive in terms of coherent replies.
--
Turnstone