Dear Tweeters,

I saw an albinistic Red-winged Blackbird that was very
likely the same one that Marv, Howard et al saw. When
I saw it a week earlier, it was at the corner of
Farm-to-Market and Field Roads, also in the Samish
Flats area. It was with only a handful of Red-winged
Blackbirds, not a big flock. I never saw the tail, as
the bird stayed up on the top of a phone pole for a
good fifteen minutes without moving.

That individual was the third such bird I had seen in
Skagit County in three years. A similar individual
came to my feeder near Lyman two or three years ago.
Another one was reported on Guemes Island less than a
year ago. It was originally reported as a possible
rarity, so I took the ferry over and took a look.
There it was, looking like a giant American Restart,
tail pattern and all, but obviously just an oddball
Red-winged Blackbird, coming to the feeder with a host
of its kin.

I must say, this particular mutation results in a very
attractive bird. Brambling, oversized warbler, oriole
cross--the possibilities of suggestion are endless!





--- carenp <carenp at totalise.co.uk> wrote:

> 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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Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com





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