I was in a Zoom meeting this morning in my "office" at my kitchen table, facing out on a beautiful view of Yellow Barn State Forest and my bird feeders. A blazingly white bird popped up at my feeders and instantly drew my attention. I dug out my camera from the backpack on the chair next to where I sit all day (every day) and tried to get some photos.
Fortunately, I make a living thinking about, teaching about, and photographing birds, so my meeting mates didn't think I was doing anything particularly weird, albeit unexpected. (Two different meetings interrupted by me grabbing my camera and diving off screen.) It turned out to be a Black-capped Chickadee with major pigment problems. Not quite a real albino, but nearly completely white with light brown cap and bib. It had some melanin and dark eyes, so not a "real" albino, but close enough for government work. (This is a very complex issue, and there are many physiological ways to reach the same appearance, so I'm not going to try to call this definitively albino, leucistic, diluted plumage, progressive graying, or other attempts at claiming the underlying causes.) The first photos were horrible, but it eventually came back and I got some passable one, included in my eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S85659031 Cool bird. I wonder how long it will stick around. Kevin -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
