Dennis mentioned that an earlier poster said feathers "turned white" in
captive chickadees, which might imply a post-developmental rather than
developmental cause for white feathers if no molt was involved. (But was
the earlier post explicit that the "turning" did not accompany molt?) At
any rate, below is a description of a wild chickadee replacing normal
feathers with white feathers during a molt. This seems to be more
likely as a mechanism for producing scattered white feathers
in wild individuals than post-developmental bleaching/damage (but it
would be interesting to know if the captive birds really did get
white feathers independent of molt). Also, I believe that one of the
earlier posts mentioned that only one web, but the entire web, of each of
several affected feathers was white. This is easy to explain as
developmental, but difficult to explain as post-developmental.

David Wright
dwright at u.washington.edu

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 11:49:12 EDT
From: Lynn Zeltmann <Lynn.Zeltmann at DARTMOUTH.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list BIRDCHAT <BIRDCHAT at ARIZVM1.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: albino chickadees

--- Dennis Paulson wrote:
Anything to report from outside of Seattle?
--- end of quoted material ---

When I was banding in Connecticut, I remember that we netted a black-capped
chickadee that lost its tail feathers. Since our nets were set up near bird
feeders, the bird stayed around for a long time and it was very obvious when
this bird came to the feeders. We watched the tail feather re-growth process
and were surprised to see that the tail feathers grew in white. (I don't
know if they stayed white after molts. I moved to New Hampshire.)

Lynn Zeltman
lynn.zeltmann at dartmouth.edu
Lebanon, NH