Black-faced sparrows

The garden is now full of young birds.  I am pleased to say there are lots of tree sparrows - I was worried they might be discouraged by the sparrowhawk who was here in the winter but I think he moved on just in time.  I have noticed at least three and possibly more young tree sparrows with black faces and collars.  My guess is that this is a partial form of melanism and that they came from the same brood.  If they stick around it will be interesting to see how they change as they mature.

These are even darker with the black extending onto the breast.

As a comparison, this is what the others look like.

The BTO Abnormal Plumage Survey has almost 3000 records of which only 112 relate to melanistic birds and 40% of those are blue tits or great tits, with 18 other species represented.