Simone and Tweeters,

What a great topic. This subject came up among a few of us discussing the Song Sparrow that has been largely referred to as a partial albino, at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, in Thurston County. Somebody came in and said it was actually "leucosistic" (sic), but we weren't familiar with the term. It doesn't appear to be in Frank Gill's _Ornithology_, and _The Birder's Dictionary_, said it was a light plumage caused by environmental, rather than genetic, factors [hmmm]. The instructional Sibley guide does not refer to leucism but only dilute plumage and forms of albinism. Having browsed the web, I realized that several people have found it difficult to find a good definition for leucism/leucistic. It also appears that groups of people vary in their choice of terminology to discribe birds with such abnormal appearances. If there is a well-written discussion of the subject, especially in recent literature, I would like to hear about it. In the meantime, here are
a few links to discussions of leucism, dilute plumage and forms of albinism that I found interesting.

1) Portland Audubon's 2002 Field Notes: Albinism in Birds, by Harry Nehls
http://www.audubonportland.org/birds/archive02.html

2) Mangile's Pigeon Pages: Albino - What's in a Name? by Robert J. Mangile
http://www.apexcorp.com/~rmangile/Pigeons/Albino.html

3) Classifying and defining Fallow colour morphs in Parrots by Terry Martin BVSc
http://www.birdhobbyist.com/parrotcolour/terry/fallow01.html

Lisa Godina
Lacey, WA
mailto: LMGodina at iname.com

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