Subject: leucicistic robin
Date: Apr 3 10:44:57 2001
From: jim_rosso at mediaseek.com - jim_rosso at mediaseek.com



Deborah

I know that in various species the sexes do migrate separately and
sometimes in different directions. But I always wonder as I view gatherings
of females if I might actually be seeing a gathering of immature birds. I
know that they sometimes migrate on their own schedule. In San Francisco
the first arrival of Long Billed Dowitchers were always the brighter
colored juveniles.

I do not know how long it takes a robin to get into adult plumage but do
you think you were viewing a group of immature birds?

Jim

Jim Rosso
jrosso at mediaseek.com
MediaSeek Technologies a division of bigchalk.com
Bellevue, Washington
425- 451-1111 ext. 139



Deborah
Wisti-Peterson To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>, Deborah Wisti-Peterson
<nyneve at u.washington. <nyneve at u.washington.edu>
edu> cc:
Sent by: Subject: leucicistic robin
TWEETERS-owner at u.wash
ington.edu


04/03/01 10:31 AM
Please respond to
nyneve







hello tweets,

yesterday, as i was cutting across campus, i saw a very pale (female?)
american robin that, upon closer inspection, turned out to have a
large white area on her belly, with white blotches on her breast.
overall, she (?) was quite pale and washed-out, looking like someone
had run her through the wash with a little bleach added!

nice looking bird, i thought!

she (?) was with several other normally-colored robins, all female.
one of these birds -- i'd like to think it was this pale one -- was
making a sort of singing sound, not a typical robin's song, but a
sort of whistle. since the other two birds were picking worms from the
soil, and this pale bird was simply standing still, i thought that
this bird might also be some sort of ventrilloquist, since the beak was
pressed shut, but sound was still being made.

this really happened, it is not a late april fool's joke. although, i
am most pleased to know that a few of you, at least, did enjoy that
little joke i passed on to the list the other day (heehee). i was
especially delighted to send out a few "gotcha!" messages, too.

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson, PhD Candidate nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/
Love the creator? Then protect the creation.