Pallid Kooka

[Julian Robinson <>]

One of the interesting sights on the excellent COG outing to the
Goobragandra River (near Tumut) on the long weekend was a ghostly
Kookaburra.

It looked paler to my eye than shown here, probably I've over-processed
it in trying to confirm whether or not it had any blue in the wing, which
it doesn't. 

I was trying to determine if it was leucistic or albino but that seems to
be a tricky subject.  It could be albino if the brown which is
evident is not due to melanin since albinism is purely a lack of
melanin.  But the brown probably IS melanin. And then again one
would imagine it would still have it's blue colouration in the wing which
is, I believe, usually/always(?) a structural colour caused by
interference patterns in the microscopic structure of the plumage, and
not pigment-related.  Which makes it stranger still, since this bird
would then be missing both pigment and structural colour.  

Leucism is supposed to related to pigment aberration too, not structural
colouration, so the loss of blue is still unexplained if it is
leucistic.  Maybe kookaburra-blue is a pigment since it is not shiny
and is rather more subtle than most bird-blues.

The eye colour is no clue since I had to 'fix' the eye to remove flash
effect as it was dusk when photographed.

It was certainly a strange and ghostly sight in the early evening
light.  (Another group saw it in daylight).

Julian