For all you albinistic chickadee observers, here's a post I thought might
be interesting (if it has already been forwarded, my apologies). Could it
be that these albinistic birds are suffering from some kind of stress or
nutritional deficiency?

David Buckley
lsdb at u.washington.edu

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 20:24:44 -0400
From: Byron Butler (GD 1995) <bbutler at MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list BIRDCHAT <BIRDCHAT at ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: Partial Albino Chickadee

On Wed, 19 Oct 1994, Rachel Lawson wrote:
> 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?
>
This is a very interesting description because a couple of years ago I
tried to do behavioral experiments with captive Black-capped Chickadees.
I was not able to keep any individuals alive in captivity for more that a
few months (they were kept indoors), because they would turn white as
described above, first in the cap, then it would spread to other
feathers. By the time their backs, scapulars, and outer tail feathers
turned white it was not too much longer before the birds would die. I was
never able to figure out the cause of these "disease" (for lack of a
better label), nor the mechanism by which black feathers turned
completely white because I chose not to collect and kill more birds. The
birds that did die on me were feed black oil seed, striped sunflower,
white proso millet, fine cracked corn, mealworms, and a nutritional
supplement called "Petamine." They received fresh water, and antibiotics
and were kept in flight cages so they got plenty of exercise.

Are you still seeing this bird? If by chance it dies and you find the
body I would appreciate you sending the bird to me (which is techically
illegal since you don't have a salvage permit for dead birds and the
permits that cover me are not valid in your area). However, I would like
to compare your bird to mine as cases like this in the wild are rare.

Byron K. Butler, Guilford, CT