I wonder if someone could explain why some of our local blackbirds have
a few feathers that are pure white. I have seen both males and females
with this trait, and until recently had thought it was just a few
feathers on a handful of individuals. However, on Saturday I saw a male
blackbird with most of his head and neck pure brilliant white. All the
others just have a few feathers on the shoulder or wing edge.

It didn't look albino, it just had white feathers. Did someone once
breed pure white blackbirds or something or is this entirely natural?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Sacha wrote:
On 2010-04-06 22:30:17 +0100, Martin Brown
said:

I wonder if someone could explain why some of our local blackbirds
have a few feathers that are pure white. I have seen both males and
females with this trait, and until recently had thought it was just a
few feathers on a handful of individuals. However, on Saturday I saw
a male blackbird with most of his head and neck pure brilliant white.
All the others just have a few feathers on the shoulder or wing edge.

It didn't look albino, it just had white feathers. Did someone once
breed pure white blackbirds or something or is this entirely natural?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Wouldn't albinos have pink eyes? Years ago we had a blackbird in
Jersey that had a white feather or two in his wing. He looked like
someone with a newspaper tucked under his arm. We called him the
Times reader. ;-)
Yes, we had a couple of blackbirds with white patches last year, not
seen any this year as yet.
Don

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

On Tresco, they all have orange beaks.

Beak colour is variable depending to some extent on age and season.
When have you been on Tesco?

Spring, summer and autumn over the last 10 years. I think we've only
missed one year. The birds there seem to have the orange beaks all the
time and I overheard someone, leading a birding group, remark that one
of these days they'd probably get some classification of their own!


I thought that the beak colour in Scilly was due to the diet of, I
think, pittispoum berries.

Roger T

On Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:30:17 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

I wonder if someone could explain why some of our local blackbirds have
a few feathers that are pure white. I have seen both males and females
with this trait, and until recently had thought it was just a few
feathers on a handful of individuals. However, on Saturday I saw a male
blackbird with most of his head and neck pure brilliant white. All the
others just have a few feathers on the shoulder or wing edge.

It didn't look albino, it just had white feathers. Did someone once
breed pure white blackbirds or something or is this entirely natural?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

Regards,
Martin Brown


Up the road they have a partially white sparrow - not seen a photo yet
though.
--
http://www.Voucherfreebies.co.uk
http://www.holidayunder100.co.uk

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2010-04-08 00:20:24 +0100, Sacha said:

On 2010-04-07 21:50:27 +0100, RogerT
said:

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

On Tresco, they all have orange beaks.

Beak colour is variable depending to some extent on age and season.
When have you been on Tesco?

Spring, summer and autumn over the last 10 years. I think we've only
missed one year. The birds there seem to have the orange beaks all the
time and I overheard someone, leading a birding group, remark that one
of these days they'd probably get some classification of their own!


I thought that the beak colour in Scilly was due to the diet of, I
think, pittispoum berries.

Roger T

I haven't heard that but given the varied diet in Tresco, I can't imagine
just one plant alone is responsible. If there's anyone suitable to ask,
I'll do so next month because it's an interesting thought.

Here's the white blackbird I was thinking of:
http://www.middevonstar.co.uk/news/4...d_in_Tiverton/
--


Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon


Thanks for showing us the picture - very interesting.

Bill