RUSSELL DEAN WOODFORD wrote:
>
> More albino bits:
>
> We have a Common Blackbird around our place with half a white tail.
> Quite
> attractive for this species. We've had a few other with white bits,
> especially around the face, but this one is very distinctive. I guess
> from this thread that it happens to a lot of otherwise black birds?
>
> Russell Woodford
> Geelong
Partial albinism is sufficiently common in Blackbirds to get a mention
and illustration in Heinzel, Fitter and Parslow's 'FG to birds of
Britain and Europe'(Collins). What intrigues me about white feathers on
Blackbirds is that while I've seen many examples, I think they've all
been 'black' male birds. Why not females or immatures? Museum of
Victoria has a skin of an all-white Blackbird - whether normal or
red-eyed I don't remember. Also skin of an all-white Song-Thrush which
had been captured and kept in an aviary.
A few years ago there was a Common Mynah in Yarra Flats Park,
Heidelberg, which was very dilute in colour - very milky-coffee indeed
where it should have been brown. It didn't last very long but
disappeared a few weeks after first noticed.
ANTHEA FLEMING
ANTHEA FLEMING
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