Try a google image search for leucistic goldfinsh - several there that might help....




________________________________
From: Barbara Miller <bmill07 at comcast.net>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 11:23 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] help with odd bird ID in Crossroads area of Bellevue?


I have very little to go on here, but in the yard around my feeder this morning (after the night of high winds) I saw a bird that I at first thought might be a leucistic goldfinch, due to the solid white body with black markings on the wings that seemed to fall in places where they would on a goldfinch.? But the bird is bigger, and seemed to spend more time on the ground than in the elevated places where I see it on goldfinches.? There was only the single bird of its kind, and the others that were around at the time were the usual juncos and perhaps some pine siskins (I didn?t look closely because I hadn?t been in the process of observing until the white bird caught my eye and then it had my full attention).??? I knew so little about leucism that I wasn?t sure whether a leucistic bird would have such clearly delineated markings on both its wings, so I got out the Peterson guide to see if there were any songbirds that could be white like
that.? Snow Bunting seemed the only possibility, which I suppose isn?t impossible after a windstorm, but would seem unlikely.? It never got close enough for me to get a decent picture (once I got out the camera) and it seems to have moved on, so I can?t go back to check more closely for field markings, bill shape, etc.
?
There is definitely a leucistic (pied) red-shafted flicker who visits my feeder regularly, but this is the whitest bird I have ever seen in my yard.? I?d love to know what it is.? If anyone with better identification skills or a quicker, more powerful camera, sees this bird (seen in the Crossroads area of Bellevue, Washington around 11 a.m.), maybe you can tell what it is.
?
Thanks
Barbara Miller
Bellevue, Washington
Bmill07ATcomcastDOTnet
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