Hello all,

Jumping in a little late, but some of you may remember a thread on this
topic maybe 3 years ago, followed by a brief resurrection more recently
than that? There were lots of postings at that time describing
Black-capped Chickadees with varying amounts of white, mostly from in and
around Seattle as I remember; I especially recall your contributions,
Dennis. At that time we had a white-tailed bird visiting our feeder in
Medina now and then, and as we began watching more closely, we determined
that there were two of them, and eventually (as I recall) as many as four.
Maybe a hawk pulled the tails off all four of them one cold night while
they were roosting close together ;-). Anyway, it might be fun to go back
to the archives and re-post that thread.

Another anecdote, for what it's worth: about a year ago, maybe a year and
a half, a resident of southern Vancouver Island e-mailed me about a
Chestnut-backed Chickadee with a lot of white on it that had been visiting
his yard. I suggested he subscribe to tweeters and post his observations
there, but as I recall, that was the last I heard of it.

Hal Opperman
Medina, WA

At 8:53 AM -0700 06/02/1998, Dennis Paulson wrote:
>Hi tweets,
>
>I never meant for a second to have anyone think I really thought chickadees
>and juncos might hybridize, but someone apparently did, so I'm putting out
>this message to correct *that* false impression.
>
>Also, it was pointed out to me that feathers may grow in white after they
>were plucked, so it's possible a white-tailed chickadee might have had its
>tail feathers pulled out by a predator and then regrown. Indeed I agree
>that's possible. I'll have to see what happens to the Black-capped in my
>yard this fall, when tail molt occurs.
>
>I'm at least somewhat inclined to believe this phenomenon represents
>albinistic genes, as I've had chickadees with varying amounts of white in
>their plumage in my yard for the 8 years I've lived at this place,
>including at least two with largely white outer tail feathers (this is what
>gave me the fanciful idea about hybrids with juncos). Thus I'm inclined to
>believe the white-tailed Black-capped Chickadees are partial albinos.
>Obviously I can't say about the Chestnut-backed, seen only once.
>
>Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-756-3798
>Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-756-3352
>University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
>Tacoma, WA 98416
>http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html