A gorgeous melanistic woodpigeon was at Moss Lane, St Helens today. I love how the colours of it's eyes and beak and especially the white neck patch are enhanced on its unusually dark head. Melanism is a darkening of skin, feathers or fur due to an unusually high amount of dark pigmentation than is normal for the species. Melanism is apparently less common than either albinism or leucism. Certainly I've only ever seen a handful of melanistic birds and I've never seen it in woodpigeons previously. You can see more typical woodpigeons in the bottom right of the photo.
The bird is lacking the white wing patches of normal woodpigeons.
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