Re: [cayugabirds-l] weird chickadee today

2021-04-17 Thread Mo Barger Rooster Hill Farm
I had one all winter! He left sometime in February.

On Fri, Apr 16, 2021, 9:14 PM Kevin J. McGowan  wrote:

> I was in a Zoom meeting this morning in my “office” at my kitchen table,
> facing out on a beautiful view of Yellow Barn State Forest and my bird
> feeders. A blazingly white bird popped up at my feeders and instantly drew
> my attention. I dug out my camera from the backpack on the chair next to
> where I sit all day (every day) and tried to get some photos.
>
> Fortunately, I make a living thinking about, teaching about, and
> photographing birds, so my meeting mates didn’t think I was doing anything
> particularly weird, albeit unexpected. (Two different meetings interrupted
> by me grabbing my camera and diving off screen.)
>
> It turned out to be a Black-capped Chickadee with major pigment problems.
> Not quite a real albino, but nearly completely white with light brown cap
> and bib. It had some melanin and dark eyes, so not a “real” albino, but
> close enough for government work. (This is a very complex issue, and there
> are many physiological ways to reach the same appearance, so I’m not going
> to try to call this definitively albino, leucistic, diluted plumage,
> progressive graying, or other attempts at claiming the underlying causes.)
>
> The first photos were horrible, but it eventually came back and I got some
> passable one, included in my eBird checklist:
> https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S85659031
>
> Cool bird. I wonder how long it will stick around.
>
> Kevin
>
>
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[cayugabirds-l] weird chickadee today

2021-04-16 Thread Kevin J. McGowan
I was in a Zoom meeting this morning in my "office" at my kitchen table, facing 
out on a beautiful view of Yellow Barn State Forest and my bird feeders. A 
blazingly white bird popped up at my feeders and instantly drew my attention. I 
dug out my camera from the backpack on the chair next to where I sit all day 
(every day) and tried to get some photos.

Fortunately, I make a living thinking about, teaching about, and photographing 
birds, so my meeting mates didn't think I was doing anything particularly 
weird, albeit unexpected. (Two different meetings interrupted by me grabbing my 
camera and diving off screen.)

It turned out to be a Black-capped Chickadee with major pigment problems. Not 
quite a real albino, but nearly completely white with light brown cap and bib. 
It had some melanin and dark eyes, so not a "real" albino, but close enough for 
government work. (This is a very complex issue, and there are many 
physiological ways to reach the same appearance, so I'm not going to try to 
call this definitively albino, leucistic, diluted plumage, progressive graying, 
or other attempts at claiming the underlying causes.)

The first photos were horrible, but it eventually came back and I got some 
passable one, included in my eBird checklist: 
https://ebird.org/atlasny/checklist/S85659031

Cool bird. I wonder how long it will stick around.

Kevin



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2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds
3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

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