Fledgeling ID anyone please? It's not a pretty one.

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Photographed by DD a couple of days ago.

My first unkind thoughts were only its mother could love it and is it a mini vulture, but no doubt when its head and neck feathers arrive it will be just an ordinary black garden bird.

Blackbirds are frequent visitors, I hear more than see crows and jackdaws.

We have a few fluffy chicks every year, even had ducklings raised in the garden one year, but I've not seen one like this before and it's so much bigger than any others I've seen.

All ideas welcome

No idea! Fledgling blackbirds have feathers on their heads don't they?
Poor thing it is... unusual looking...

Are we sure that’s a fledgling? It looks like a blackbird that has been absolutely destroyed in a fight.

Blackbird but probably either escaped a predator or has mites or some other form of parasite causing it to lose its feathers

It’s not a fledgling. It’s a full grown adult

Funnily enough, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this. This was shared on a local Facebook page and consensus was the following.

It was either:-
A predator
Diseases
Feather mites
Or
When an adult is raising a baby, they can lose feathers by stress. It grows back once babies are fledged

Blackbird, an adult is a bad way. I have one in my garden looks a bit scraggy but nothing like this poor old thing!

Male Blackbird? Never seen one so badly affected :-(

Poor things. This child-rearing is exhausting

Our starlings are now being chased round by their second batch of young this year & looking a bit bedraggled.

Or could have been an escape from a sparrowhawk....

Mini vulture that only it's mother could love

Oh dear, poor thing

Thanks for letting me know.
We've not seen it since.

It should be ok. Again several posts have said that the feathers grow back and it doesn’t impact on them feeding. It just looks unsightly

Fingers crossed it'll be okay, thanks so much

Definitely an adult male blackbird - fledglings are brown and speckled. Poor thing looks in a bad way.