Could be at least a partial albino. I posted on here a week or so about having seen two robins on Capitol Hill in Seattle that were aberrent. One had an all bone-white head, and the other had a mostly white head with a dark 'mohawk' streak in the center. They were part of a large flock of some 400 birds. I think with those that have migrated down to join the year-round residents, we are seeing more aberrently colored birds. Stuff like that happens in nature all of the time. I just completed a 200-level Biology class at Shoreline CC and we talked about genetic variation a good bit. It's fascinating stuff learning that there are literally millions of gene combinations coming from 2 parents.
Brett A. Wolfe gismybabe at yahoo.com Seattle, WA
Henne Queisser <henneq at wrq.com> wrote:We're new to birding so are not sure if this is unusual. On Saturday, in our Mercer Island yard, we saw an almost entirely white bird. It was similar to a robin in shape and size. It had a yellow beak and a few black streaks on its wings and tail. The lower half of the breast was a splotchy orange, the top half of the breast was all white. The legs were darker yellow/orange. The eye was dark. We did not see an eye ring or noticeable identification marks around the eye. It did not come to the bird feeder. It perched in a tree along with three robins. Was this an "albino" robin? Thanks. Henne Queisser/Ed FreedmanMercer Island, WA




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