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Hi all,
A nice surprise on the way home last week, between Blackall and Tambo
in Central Qld, was a black White-winged Fairy-wren. This was on
a fence in Mitchell grass downs. He certainly stood out from the usual
bright cobalt blue fellows I normally see (which is not to denigrate the
spectacle of the 'usual'!).
There have been quite a few reports of black male WWFW's at various
mainland locations over the years, enough for Pizzey and Knight to describe
the mainland race leuconotus as 'occasionally black'. Interestingly,
they also note that the nominate race is sometimes blue. I'm speculating
that the black coloration in males is a recessive sex-linked genetic trait
that occasionally manifests itself in the widespread mainland race but
has become relatively fixed in the smaller gene pool of the island-based
nominate race. Any geneticists out there want to wise me up on this?
--
+----------------------------------------+
Richard Johnson
Senior Conservation Officer, Habitat Case Studies
Roma District
Tel: (07) 4622 4266 Fax: (07) 4622 4151
E-mail:
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