Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

white blackbird

Options
  • 15-04-2021 12:50pm
    #1
    jameshayes
    Registered Users Posts: 3,772 ✭✭✭


    I seen a white blackbird today, I wasn't smart enough to take a photo, are they rare?


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,432 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    There's two conditions which can affect a bird's colouring, albinism, which many people are familiar with in humans, and leucism. Here's an article that explains them, and the difference between them ...

    https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/gbw/gardens-wildlife/garden-birds/behaviour/plumage/leucism


  • Options
    #3
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Birding websites often say such conditions are not especially rare; maybe not but I have never seen a fully white/leucistic blackbird, so an interesting spot. Birds with various patches of white are rather more frequent. It will likely remain in the area you saw it, so you might get another chance to get a picture.

    I don't know what its prospects are going to be, there is an albino Curlew knocking around North Clare for several years, also know of a fully leucistic Black-headed Gull in Galway, again for years, obviously depends on species and risks of predation among other factors.


  • Options
    #4
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,432 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    Yes, I've never seen a 100% white example, only a very patchy leucistic blackbird, roughly 50% black and white in our garden once.


  • Options
    #5
    jameshayes
    Registered Users Posts: 3,772 ✭✭✭jameshayes


    This one was pure white, I didn't know what it was at first because it was so rare to see it. I thought maybe a house bird that escaped but then it did the fan tail thing that blackbirds do. It was on this road if anyone is close. There are swans about to hatch in the park beside, that's why I walk down every few days.

    https://goo.gl/maps/8gbtuizXeVqF6agC6


Advertisement