Examples are Bill of the Bird's leucistic junco, Snowflake, the long-billed White-breasted Nuthatch in Mary's View, or Julie Zickefoose's Red-bellied Woodpecker, Ruby. An extreme example is the gynandromorphic Northern Cardinal recently featured at Minnesota Birdnerd's blog. This half-male/half-female cardinal is certainly a remarkable bird.
My bird is not so dramatic, but he is recognizable. "Barry" is my "White-winged House Finch." He showed up today, right after I read a post on the Ohio Birds listserv about a similar House Finch reported by Amy W. in Medina County, Ohio.
I snapped one quick picture through the bathroom window, but am hoping for a better photograph later, if he sticks around.
Despite the poor quality of this photo, I think you can see the strong white wing bars which caught my eye. Barry's appearance at my feeders today, along with Amy's report, has the unintentioned consequence of reducing my Life List by one species. In December of 2007, I recorded a "White-winged Crossbill" feeding with the finches at my office feeder, based on the wing bars. Now, I feel obliged to retract that ID, thanks to Barry.
5 comments:
I hope your Barry hangs around. We had a leucistic goldfinch last summer, but he left after a day or so.
That bird would have made me pause, too.
Weird.
Neato! I've never seen a HoFi looking at all like anything but a plain old HoFi.
Kathi, I saw your post on the Cinci birds and came to see pictures of Barry!
I had a partially albino bluejay that we nicknamed "Papa Smurf", he was a real treat to see each day. He disappeared after a few months and I still missing seeing that beautiful bluejay.
I hope you get to enjoy Barry for many years!
What a cool bird..I read all the other posts that you linked to as well...Julies woodpecker rubys story made me teary..
I hope your birdies sticks around so you can get some more photos.
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