Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 08:07:08 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Huy Subject: Re: Albino Buteo in Frederick County MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 03/23/04 18:09:01 Eastern Standard Time, retarce@ADELPHIA.NET writes: > I saw it today (mile 42 on I-70) and managed to get a few photos and a > bit of video. It's not an albino? I understand the plumage is highly > variable, but snow white? Can you explain? I'm not trying to be > contrary - I really want to learn. :) No matter what it is - it is > beautiful! Leucistic. (and I probably spelled that wrong) Albino is a complete lack of pigment. I believe this hawk has dark eyes. It has some dark feathers and yellow skin instead of pale or pink. An albino would be entirely white, have pink eyes and very light skin. I haven't been out to see it yet this year, but in past years the white hawk at this location has not been an albino and none of the descriptions I have seen indicate it is an albino. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================