Subject: Re: Partial Albino Chickadee (fwd)
Date: Oct 19 16:05:20 1994
From: Rachel Lawson - jbrown at HALCYON.COM

>Today, a partial albino Black-capped Chickadee turned up at my feeder. I
>haven't been able to get a good look at it yet, but it seems to have white
>feathers speckled in the black cap, a white back and scapulars, and a white
>tail. It's an interesting-looking bird. How common is this in the Paridae?
>
>Rachel Lawson
>Seattle, WA
>jbrown at halcyon.com

Where do you live, Rachel? I have at least 3 chickadees in my yard with
varying amounts of white, including one exactly as you describe. Only the
outer several rectrices are white in this bird, making it look like a junco
as it flies away. Fred Bird, who lives 10+ blocks away, had partial albinos
breeding at his house, perhaps some of the same birds (they disappeared
from his yard). David Chelimer, down in Magnolia, has a white-crowned,
white-backed chickadee (like another of the birds in my yard) a photo of
which didn't quite make it into the current WOSNEWS but should be in the
next one. I would have said such birds were "quite uncommon" until this
winter. We had a partial albino last winter that was definitely a different
bird than any this year. Albinistic mutations are common in birds and are
usually taken by predators. It is a sign, I think, of the reduction of
predators in a city that allows so many albinistic birds to persist. I was
amazed at the number of partial albinos I saw in London years
ago--Blackbirds, House Sparrows and Starlings all in one park. Other than
these (at least) 4 Black-capped Chickadees, I've not seen any albinos in my
yard.


Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound email: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416