birdsoup

I’ve never seen an albino bird, a bird with white, colorless feathers and pink eyes.  They are very rare.  When scientists reviewed the records of 30,000 birds that had been captured for banding over many years, they discovered that only 17 of the birds were albino – that is less than ½ of 1%.   Maybe that rarity is why I have never seen one.

 I have seen a partial albino bird, a birds where portions of the plumage are white. (Technically they are called leucino birds)  For a while we had a house sparrow coming to the feeder in front of the store that looks exactly like thousand of other house sparrows except it had a white head.  It really stood out.

 Sometime you get a reputation for being an expert at something you are not.  Missi Gottesman, the woman who recently spotted the very first Barnacle Goose ever seen in Westchester may have achieved that status, at least among her friends. 

 A friend emailed this photo to Missi showing an unusual looking goose she had just seen.  Missi, having just found the Barnacle Goose, had become a legend is identifying rare geese.  She was sure to know what this one is.   It turned out to be a partial albino Canada Goose.  It had the shape, size and color of a normal Canada Goose with the exception of some white areas.   I think the white gave the bird something of a strikingly handsome look.  

Unfortunately I deleted Missi’s photo so you can’t see how handsome it was.  But below are some photos of a partial albino Redwing Blackbird.  I think this bird is much more attractive the real thing.

   Athough partial albino birds are not as rare as fully albino birds they are not common.  But you never know.  This one was found and photographed, not by an ornithologist, but by a true amateur who couldn’t tell a chicken from a chickadee.

Look closely at all the birds you see.  You never know what you might find.