Wierdo means ' partially leucistic'. Yesterday while driving down the road in north Snohomish town I spotted what I at first thought was an Evening Grosbeak with white on the wings and body. It landed in a big lawn with a bunch of Robins, which seemed strange. Luckily there was no traffic so I got the binocs out and saw it was an American Robin with an unusual addition of white feathers on wings and rump.

About three weeks ago, just a half mile down the same road I saw a White-cheeked Robin. OK, so it was just a 'partially leucistic' American Robin not a new species. However this particular bird was really striking! ('Partially leucistic' just sounds so clinical !). With most birds with this 'condition' that I've seen, the results look like the bird has something 'wrong' with it. However the 'White-cheeked Robin' achieved immediate almost species status with me. Here's what it looked like: all American Robin except the head. The 'cheeks' (whole side of the head) were solid bright white. The rest of the head instead of the usual black (or dark grey ) was very distinctly mottled black and white - below the 'cheeks' and above on the crown. A striking and beautiful bird. I'm sure Darwin would've given it two thumbs up in the aesthetics awards.


Jeff Gibson , Everett Wa