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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Catbirds Don't Look Like That!

A few days ago I received a picture of a bird from Bev Linn, one of our much-appreciated volunteers. The picture required a second look, for this was quite clearly a Gray Catbird, but it had a white head! Leucism (as it's technically called) is relatively common in birds and occurs when colour pigment is missing from just part of the bird's plumage. Though taken by Bev's son-in-law well out of our area in Hackettstown, I thought the picture deserved a wider audience, and serves as a reminder that, whenever you are birding, it always pays to expect the unexpected!

Partially leucistic Gray Catbird [photo by Steve Hoech]

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