I had a chickadee at my feeder this late winter with a very reduced black
cap, so that the eyes were completely encircled by white. Kent McFarland at
VINS explained that this bird was "leucistic" -- with white patches where
another color would normally be. When I photographed this bird, I sent it at
the same time to Kent and to a friend at Massachusetts Audubon. The picture
made its way to Simon Perkins, a field ornithologist there, who said he'd
been meaning to start an image database of aberrant plumages because he
seems to get more reports and photos of them every year. Apparently he was
going to start with this one. If you have a photo of the finch (or if anyone
else has similar photos of leucism) and are interested in including it in
Simon's database, send it to him at [log in to unmask], and be sure to
include the date, the photographer's name, and the town where it was taken.
Susan
Perkinsville
------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:24:14 -0700
From:    Mitchell Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: strange looking purple finch

I'm not sure if I saw a purple finch in my yard today
that was simply molting, if it was a partial albino or
something else.  On the back, where there are normally
red feathers interspersed with brown, the feathers
were white instead of red.  Has anyone run across
this?

Mitch Harrison
Wardsboro   

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End of VTBIRD Digest - 24 Apr 2006 to 25 Apr 2006 (#2006-116)
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