[va-bird] Re: bluebird - strange
- From: Katrina Knight <kknight@xxxxxxxx>
- To: VA-BIRD@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 12:48:58 -0500
At 09:22 AM 11/11/2004 Oscar McCrowell wrote:
Tuesday, Nov. 9th at 3:30 pm I saw a bluebird that was gray where
the eastern is rust. The gray extended to the head. The blue in
this bluebird was more like a tree swallow blue with finely defined
white tips on the wings when folded and a very prominent white eye
ring. It seemed larger than the eastern.
It is possible for birds to be lacking in pigment of one color. (Like
albinism, but only involving one color.) Maybe this bird was lacking
in red pigment? I saw a Purple Finch that was totally lacking in red
one year while doing the Lexington CBC. The places where the red
should be weren't all totally white, because the feathers involved
had other pigments as well as the missing red. It was quite startling
to see and distracted me from counting other birds for a while until
I figured out what it was.
There was no streaking such as you would find in an immature. It
looked very much like the female western bluebird picture in the
Nat. Geo. guide except there was no rust. Or the mountain female
except the gray was very gray and smooth.
Mountain bluebirds are a distinctly different color of blue, do have
eye-rings and do show up in the east occasionally. Their posture is a
bit different also. They tend to sit up a bit straighter. If you see
one with other bluebirds, that is noticable, but I don't know if it
would be if it was alone. I don't think the white wingtips don't fit
in with it being a Mountain Bluebird though. I can't recall ever
seeing any kind of bluebird with noticably white wingtips.
--
Katrina Knight
kknight@xxxxxxxx
Reading, PA
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