Ethereal Visitor

Yesterday afternoon we arrived home from a couple of meetings and as we were unloading the car, I spotted a bird in the bird bath that looked "different" somehow. At first I thought it was a young, light mourning dove, but on closer inspection, it appeared to be completely white. We watched it for several minutes, got the binoculars and the camera, and noted it had pink eyes and feet as well. Clearly it was an albino, but what species?

Our question was answered when an adult brewer blackbird swooped down to join the visitor, who fluttered its wings and hopped over to the adult to be fed! So we have an albino young blackbird in the neighborhood. Eventually the adult coaxed the youngster to fly to a neighboring garage roof, and then to a tree a couple of houses north, where our friend Patty lives. Now we know how the plains Indians might have felt the first time they spotted a white buffalo.

I did some research on the Internet and found a Missouri Department of Conservation article that discussed albinism in birds. It is most common in jays, cardinals and finches, but has been reported in red-winged blackbirds and many other species as well. It doesn't affect their health but may cause troubles in attracting a mate. Since the genes for albinism are recessive, that makes the appearance of one even more remarkable!

I still need to put up posts dealing with some of our Kansas vacation adventures and I will, soon, but I wanted to share this rare sighting before it becomes ancient history.