Fieldfare

I was excited to find a new bird (for me) outside Phorzheim, Germany in the small town of Neubulach, on the outskirts of the Black Forest. Judy and her family were visiting Phorzheim, where her mother grew up, to attend a ceremony where they laid a "stolperstein" for her grandfather, Karl Gustav Frey, who was euthanized by the Nazis in 1940. The eleven members of Judy's family who traveled to Germany rented a a three story house in Neubulach, a 30 or 40 minute drive outside Pforzheim, where we stayed for three nights while we visited places associated with her grandfather and grandmother, mother and uncle. The home of Judy's grandmother and mother was destroyed in the bombing of Phorzheim in 1945 and they emigrated to the U.S. later where they lived the remainder of their lives. 

I went out early several mornings to walk and drive around Neubulach looking for birds. I found a home with a large yard and long grass where some beautiful birds were walking around among the grass. I knew they were a new bird for me and was completely surprised when I looked on Merlin to find that they were called a "fieldfare," a very weird name for a bird and one I'd never heard of. It is an old English name dating back to at least the 11th century which meant "traveler through the fields," an apt description for the birds I was watching. There are an estimated 42 to 72 million fieldfares in Europe, a staggering number, particularly for a bird I've never heard of. 

I went back the next morning and saw the fieldfares in the same place and also saw some roosting on tree branches and telephone wires.

It has a slate gray head, nape and rump, dark brown back, blackish tail and speckled breast. The forehead and crown of the male are blue-gray and each feather has a central brown-black band. There is a more meticulous list of colors on various parts of the body I'll not go into. The male and female look similar, but the upper parts of the female are more brown and the feathers on the crown have narrower black central stripes. 

The photos in the green grass are from the first home I saw them at and went back to a second time. I believe this is a male. 

I believe this darker bird is the female. 

I believe this is an immature fieldfare which was walking around with its parents. 

This and the next photos were in different places and I could have provided more for different birds. 

Illustration of the fieldfare from Birds of the World.

Range map of the fieldfare from Birds of the World.