Good evening,

Many of you have heard about the xanthochromistic (abnormally yellow)
Northern Cardinal in Alabama. This week, I was fortunate to observe a bird
with another rare color variety! During lunch on Monday, my English teacher
whose class features my regular Bird of the Week presentation showed me his
phone photos of a very unusually-colored crow along Lake Washington
Boulevard S that he had spotted while jogging on Saturday. I drove to the
spot as soon as school ended, and found the crow in the exact same field as
I had hoped! The crow showed off its beautiful golden mane in the afternoon
sunlight, and was otherwise a pretty spectacular-looking bird with various
shades of light brown. This crow's unusual plumage is likely caused by a
deficiency of eumelanin, one of the primary pigments that control dark
color in feathers. A similar crow was observed nesting in north Seattle
last summer by Kaeli Swift of the University of Washington, so perhaps
there is a genetic link between the two birds. If you would like to see
this crow, it seems to have a winter feeding territory around the Ferdinand
St. Boat Ramp.

Checklist (with extra photos) and Flickr album link:
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S43224516
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132642556 at N03/albums/72157666255642248

Good birding, Joshua Glant
Mercer Island, WA
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