Subject: Re: albinism in birds
Date: Mar 16 16:10:29 1995
From: Serge Le Huitouze - serge at cs.sfu.ca


Stuart MacKay writes:

> Is there any evidence that albinism is most common in dark/black feathered
> birds. In the UK Blackbirds, (turdus merulla ?) are probably the most commonly
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Turdus merula :-)

> seen albinistic bird. Rooks and Carrion Crows are also seen. I have even seen
> an albino Common Murre, Uria aalge. Quite a sight !!!

On the same line, there are a few known case of albinism in the European
Swift (?) _Apus apus_.

One could possibly argue that partial albinos are more easily detected on
dark birds than on others.
But this is no evidence :-(

Also, I used to see many partial albinos (albini ?) House Sparrows _Passer
domesticus_ in the "Jardin des Plantes" when I worked in Paris.
I tended to believe, like Dennis, that it was the lack of predators in heavily
crowded areas that was the cause of these guys to survive.
A even more obvious case of lack of predators in these areas is the huge
number of (pseudo) Rock Doves _Columba livia_ with all kind of color patterns
in their feathers.


--
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A bird in the bush is better than two in the hand.

Serge Le Huitouze Intelligent Software Group
email: serge at cs.sfu.ca School of Computing Science
tel: (604) 291-5423 Simon Fraser University
fax: (604) 291-3045 Burnaby, B.C., V5A 1S6 CANADA