Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 06:14:19 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Darius Ecker Organization: Prodigy Internet Subject: Re: Grackles with white feathers MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I remember last year Peter Osenton and I were doing a Christmas count together in '98 and noticed white feathers on a European Starling. We sa= w a single bird in a large flock of starlings that we originally thought was = an Eastern Meadowlark, but turned out, upon closer inspection, to be a European Starling with white outer tail-feathers. I've also seen random white feathers on Red-winged Blackbirds. Then there was that wonderful Red-tailed Hawk a few years ago that was mostly white with a red tail. W= hat a bird ! If the pattern of white is random, just on one side, in different places = on opposite sides that's a dead giveaway that it's partial albinism. In the case of this starling, the pattern was not random, and both outer tail feathers were perfectly white and matched each other. If it looks like a Starling, and sounds like a startling, it's probably a startling. Has anyone ever researched the rate of survival these birds? One would th= ink the white feathers would highlight the birds to predators. Darius Ecker eckerd@prodigy.net Columbia, Maryland ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stan Arnold" To: Sent: Friday, February 04, 2000 4:34 AM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Grackles with white feathers > My experience is similar to Fred's: I've seen several grackles with varying > amounts of white. Last week I saw a grackle with white outer tail feathers > on the Va. eastern shore. Though I've not seen an albino, two years ag= o, > here in Anne Arundel Co., I saw a "piebald" grackle, with a mottled ta= n and > white coloration--no dark feathers at all. > > Stan Arnold > Glen Burnie > > -----Original Message----- > From: Frederick W. Fallon > To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM > Date: Friday, February 04, 2000 12:36 AM > Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] What is this bird? > > > >Grackles have a fairly high incidence of partial albinism, esp (in my > >experience) with white feathers in the wing or tail. Could this be the > >explanation? In that case, perhaps the white was on only one side. > > > >Fred Fallon > >fwfallon@mnsinc.com > >Bowie > > > >Jerry Rolape wrote: > > > >> A grackle sized black bird with a broad white stripe running from hi= s > >> breast to the base of his tail was under our feeder this morning. = The > >> white stripe was brilliant against the black. We could not tell if = the > >> white were directly under the wing or if it were comprised of the le= ad > >> feathers of the wing. This was the first time we have seen this bir= d. > >> Even though he was surrounded by red wings, grackles and cow birds, = he > >> stood out because of his size and the brilliant stripe. My husband > >> tried to take a picture, but the flock took off when they saw moveme= nt > >> at the window. This bird has not returned so far. I can't recogniz= e > >> this from the photo examples in either the Audubon or Peterson field > >> guides. O.K. I give up. Does anybody know what it was? > >> > >> -- > >> Have a nice day. Jerry & MI Rolape > >> Bushwood, MD gjrolape@radix.net > >> http://www.radix.net/~gjrolape > >> > >> ------------ Original Message ------------ > >> > >> ======================== ================================================= > >> To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.= com > >> with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > >> ======================== ================================================= > > > >========================= ================================================ > >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.co= m > >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > >========================= ================================================ > > > > ========================= ================================================ > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ========================= ================================================ ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================