Finally got a good enough photo of one of these birds! They are everywhere but they disappear as soon as a camera comes out. They are one of those common garden-variety birds that are for some reason just really difficult for me to photograph.
They are similar to the familiar English Blackbird (and were formerly treated as a subspecies) but they are huge in comparison. No joke, the first ones I saw back in 2013 I thought they were crows at first glance. They aren't actually that big but the size is so much bigger than a regular Blackbird that that is the impression. Even today I saw one on a powerline from a bus and thought for a second it was a Jackdaw until it moved into a more Blackbird-like pose.
I have only just realised too, on looking at these photos, how much more robust the bill is than that of an English Blackbird, and that it has a distinct black tip.
