Subject: bad picture, leucistic RT
Date: Apr 21 22:30:29 1998
From: Don Baccus - dhogaza at pacifier.com


Years ago, I had the opportunity to see a leucistic (sp?) red-tailed
hawk held by the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, a wildlife rehab center in
central CA. This bird was coffee-cream colored, not entirely albinistic
as it had pigmentation, but cream-brown.

Well, someone who thinks he's a photographer asked me to critique his
website, and lo-and-behold, his raptor photos are mostly from this
Museum.

So, I thought you might all like seeing this bad photo (not horrible,
just, well, bad :) of a great bird, a red-tailed hawk the color of milk
with 10 drops of Starbucks added to the glass...

http://www.golden-eagle.org/images/Leukrt2.JPG

Note the pink bill, it truly has albinistic features that are slightly
washed over by normal coloration trends. I inspected this (old) bird
closely - no red (or hint of brick) in the tail, no belly band (or hint),
one weird red-tail!


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net