This cool looking weka was seen on Friday night on the roadside on the Karamea Bluff and the photos passed on via Jan.
White Birds - photos and discussion
- Neil Fitzgerald
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3645
- Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 10:20 am
- Location: Hamilton, New Zealand
- Contact:
- Neil Fitzgerald
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3645
- Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 10:20 am
- Location: Hamilton, New Zealand
- Contact:
Re: Leucistic Birds - photos and discussion
Paul Scofield pointed out (in another thread) this paper on colour aberrations in birds, and I think it is the easiest to understand discussion of the subject I have seen so far.
van Grouw H 2013. What Colour is that bird? The causes and recognition of common colour aberrations in birds. British Birds 106, pp 17–29
http://www.researchgate.net/publication ... s_in_birds
After reading this I think the tui (at least two) I have seen and photographed several times over the years, and which I had been calling leucistic are actually 'brown'.
Now that I look back at the previous page of this thread I also think the white kereru I photographed a couple of times has 'progressive greying', as it (assuming it is the same bird) has become whiter with time. I may also have this condition.
van Grouw H 2013. What Colour is that bird? The causes and recognition of common colour aberrations in birds. British Birds 106, pp 17–29
http://www.researchgate.net/publication ... s_in_birds
After reading this I think the tui (at least two) I have seen and photographed several times over the years, and which I had been calling leucistic are actually 'brown'.
Now that I look back at the previous page of this thread I also think the white kereru I photographed a couple of times has 'progressive greying', as it (assuming it is the same bird) has become whiter with time. I may also have this condition.
- Charlotte
- Posts: 187
- Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 10:54 am
- Location: Wellington
- Contact:
Re: Leucistic Birds - photos and discussion
While driving in Lower Hutt this morning a bird flew in front of our car heading towards the river edge. It was a partial leucistic blackbird, very mottled in colour. Haven't seen one here before.
-
- Posts: 1874
- Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:43 am
- Location: Christchurch
Re: Leucistic Birds - photos and discussion
Nice Blackbird near Halswell School at present, seen him twice.
Has a nice broad white collar, could start a new subspecies?
Has a nice broad white collar, could start a new subspecies?
- Michael
- Posts: 623
- Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 4:28 pm
- Location: Wellington, New Zealand
- Contact:
Re: Leucistic Birds - photos and discussion
Jan wrote:Nice Blackbird near Halswell School at present, seen him twice.
Has a nice broad white collar, could start a new subspecies?
It'll take more than a few white feathers, but the fact that the white feathers could be part if a NZification. At the same time these pied blackbirds are found in all populations, England, Australia, Here and everywhere in between, so the odds are a real nice chunck of Blackbirds will have to be quite white, and breeding only with other white blackbirds. And even when the plumage changes, this doesn't mean they are different. It is ll quite ott if you ask me, but as I have always said, "A blackbird is black, and that is how I want them ."
Latest Lifer: Australian Gull-Billed Tern @ Manawatu Estuary
- Neil Fitzgerald
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3645
- Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 10:20 am
- Location: Hamilton, New Zealand
- Contact:
Re: Leucistic Birds - photos and discussion
Charlotte wrote:While driving in Lower Hutt this morning a bird flew in front of our car heading towards the river edge. It was a partial leucistic blackbird, very mottled in colour. Haven't seen one here before.
Or, more likely, progressive greying. From the paper noted above "Progressive greying is common in Blackbirds, House Spar-rows Passer domesticus and Jackdaws Corvus monedula . White feathers in these species are hardly ever due to leucism."
- Charlotte
- Posts: 187
- Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 10:54 am
- Location: Wellington
- Contact:
Re: Leucistic Birds - photos and discussion
Thanks Neil had missed that post with the link, so will have a read.
- Michael Szabo
- Posts: 2566
- Joined: Sun May 08, 2011 12:30 pm
- Contact:
Re: Leucistic Birds - photos and discussion
Just saw this photo of a leucistic sooty shearwater posted by Monterey Bay Whale Watch in the USA.
https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... 9090_o.jpg
https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... 9090_o.jpg
'New Zealand Birders' Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/857726274293085
- Michael
- Posts: 623
- Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 4:28 pm
- Location: Wellington, New Zealand
- Contact:
Re: Leucistic Birds - photos and discussion
Neil Fitzgerald wrote:Charlotte wrote:While driving in Lower Hutt this morning a bird flew in front of our car heading towards the river edge. It was a partial leucistic blackbird, very mottled in colour. Haven't seen one here before.
Or, more likely, progressive greying. From the paper noted above "Progressive greying is common in Blackbirds, House Spar-rows Passer domesticus and Jackdaws Corvus monedula . White feathers in these species are hardly ever due to leucism."
Hang on a moment. If that's so, how do aviculturalists breed the white, or pied Blackbirds that make up a fair chunck of aviary birds considered as softbills in NZ? I would have though that to be more than progressive greying if they are specifically for these colours?
Latest Lifer: Australian Gull-Billed Tern @ Manawatu Estuary
- Neil Fitzgerald
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3645
- Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 10:20 am
- Location: Hamilton, New Zealand
- Contact:
Re: Leucistic Birds - photos and discussion
How many blackbirds are keep by aviculturalists in NZ?