Folks,

Stuart Johnston and I found and photographed a white female Mountain
Bluebird near Bickleton, Washington, yesterday (6.01.03).

One of the photos and more background information can be found at the
following web page

http://community.gorge.net/birding/whitemtbluebird.htm

If someone can let me know the difference between an albino, a leucistic
and an isabelline bird, I would appreciate it.

It is my sense that a true albino has pink eyes. This did not have pink
eyes, although there was a very faint pink cast in the plumage ( similar to
a pollen dusting that may be seen on spring snow high on a mountain). I was
under the impression that leucistic implied a dull buff or light amber hue,
rather than pure white, but this is drawing on a conversation many birds
ago. And finally, the first words out of Stuart's mouth after seeing the
bird were isabelline. A brief search of the web produced isabelline birds
that were not white, but light tan, or dull buff, more in keeping with my
understanding of leucistic.

Feel free to send your comments directly to me.

Thanks,
Bob Hansen
Lyle, WA
bobhansen at gorge.net