birding-aus

Odd Miner, Melbourne

To: "'Bill Stent'" <>, <>
Subject: Odd Miner, Melbourne
From: "Philip Veerman" <>
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2018 08:32:07 +1100
Birds of many species are occasionally found with unusual white patches - or 
actually lack of normal colour. Maybe white is the most common of the possible 
range of colour variants. No reason to invoke a hybrid idea. The word is 
leucistic. Lots of internet information on this. Such as this: 
https://www.birdnote.org/blog/2018/04/why-bird-part-white-leucism

Philip

-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus  On Behalf Of 
Bill Stent
Sent: Wednesday, 17 October, 2018 7:41 AM
To: 
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Odd Miner, Melbourne

Walking the dog along Kooning Creek this morning, we came across a weird 
looking Miner. In a colony of Noisy Miners, it has a head just like a Noisy, 
including the half black cap, but when it flies, there are large white patches 
on its upper wings, as though it has white primaries. When folded it shows as a 
white stripe like a Dusky Woodswallow.

Just a weird individual, some sort of leukistic (if that’s the right term), or 
maybe a hybrid? The nearest Yellow-throated is about 500km away, and they don’t 
have white wings either.

Bill


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