The crow Stan Ray reported is indeed a partial albino. Stan and I live next
door to each other, and I have seen this crow several times over the last
few months. It is a very striking bird, with a symmetrical pattern of white
feathers, mostly wing feathers. In flight, the bird is quite reminiscent of
a magpie. There is abundant white visible in the sitting bird.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== MJCT_Hobbs at msn.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Hill <cehill at u.washington.edu>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, November 27, 1997 9:20 AM
Subject: Re: Strange Crow


>I've seen a similar pattern in crows many times. In all instances that
>I've been able to examine closely, the crow had not grown white feathers,
>but had had his feathers chewed by parasites. The most common pattern is
>a band of "white" in the secondaries, kind of where the white stripe on a
>young Golden Eagle's wing is. In flight, the wings look transparent in a
>good light, or, more often, simply white. Late summer just before molt
>happens is when I see the most of these raggedy crows. I don't know if
>crows are more susceptible to feather parasites, or if their feathers make
>the damage more apparent than in other species.
>
>My observations may or may not relate to yours - if you observed pure
>white feathers on a sitting crow, then certainly it's a partial albino,
>and the other post to tweeters (from Vashon Is.) is the only other
>instance I've ever heard of an albino crow. But in flight, the "worn"
>crows look convincingly white in the wing feathers, and fooled me the
>first few times I saw them (over a period of several years).
>
>Chris Hill
>Everett, WA
>cehill at u.washington.edu
>
>
>On Wed, 26 Nov 1997, Stan Ray wrote:
>
>> Yesterday evening, I briefly saw what I decided was a gleam of light
>> reflected off of a crow's underwings. Then today I saw the crow in full
>> daylight. He definitely has pure white secondary feathers in both wings!
>> This observation is probably not unheard of, but it sure is new to me.
>> Anybody seen the likes. (Crow observed near my home here near Rose Hill
in
>> Kirkland, WA.
>> Stan
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>