the description by mr paulson (and the accompanying URL for the photograph)
got me to wondering if the local summer star of juanita bay park,
"Whitewall", is another in this line. i've compared the URL with my photos,
and they appear quite similar...

for those that are interested, five photos of Whitewall are located in the
BIRDS gallery. please click on Passerines, then Warblers to Finches, and
finally Red-winged Blackbird, Partial Albino... he's been seen at JBP for
four summers running now, and the rangers at the park occasionally hear
about at least one other (unconfirmed, i believe)...

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org
on the internet near seward park

-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Dennis
Paulson
Sent: Sunday, 2005 November 06 18:55
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] aberrant Red-winged Blackbirds


... I just wanted to add that birds colored just like this seem to be a
fairly common mode of aberrant plumage in male Red-wings. I have seen two
that looked like this in Washington over the past 35 years, we have one just
like it in the Slater Museum collection, and Ruth Sullivan photographed one
something like it a few years ago
(http://www2.ups.edu/biology/museum/albinoRWBL.jpg). I have also heard of a
few others. They have in common a sharp transition between dark breast and
light belly with an orange cast and prominent streaks, and a white tail with
black tip, sometimes patterned like a longspur. This is really quite a
surprising combination, so it's interesting that it recurs this often. I
would have thought several genes would be involved in that many aspects of
the coloration, but perhaps they are all linked in this mutant. It certainly
makes the relationship between blackbirds and orioles more understandable.

Dennis Paulson
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