Location central park (with rowboat pond), Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Turdus merula
This was probably the most exciting puzzle of the trip. As we walked through the park on our way to the pond, I saw one of these hopping about on the lawn. If I had paid attention to the behavior more than the color, I would have arrived at the correct answer sooner, I believe. But given my unfamiliarity with European birds, I don't feel too bad about it.
After looking in my book, I decided that what I had seen was a Spotless Starling. But I didn't feel really good about that, so I flipped through the book some more. This was sort of a habit I had anyway; it helps solidify in my mind that I have the right identification by eliminating any other birds it could possibly be. (I correctly switched from Stellar's Jay to Phainopepla by doing this.)
If you look at that bird in the picture and change his breast to rusty red and his back to brownish-gray, what do you have? An American Robin. The Blackbird in Europe is actually a thrush. Thinking back on what I saw, I remembered that he indeed had moved like a robin, hopping and pausing, and not like a starling, which has more continuous movement with frequent changes in direction.
The real clincher, and what made this so fun, was that I looked up the entry in the field guide for American Robin, which is rare visitor in Europe. It reads:
"Confiding [tame], often a garden or park bird in America, and stragglers in Europe usually occur in same habitats, behaving much like a Blackbird or Fieldfare." (emphasis mine)
I had used an American Robin as a model for the Blackbird's behavior, and that matched exactly the process for identifying an American Robin in Europe! The ID was ironclad and elegantly closed.
Wikipedia: Common Blackbird
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