Elegance
Taking a closer look at the fish
Pennycress seedpods
It tickles!
Feeding time excitement
Peking Cotoneaster / Cotoneaster acutifolia
Harebell / Campanula rotundifolia
Mule Deer buck
Making the most of a rotting log
Tasty damselfly and skipper
Leopard Lacewing / Cethosia cyane
Complete with tiny rooster weather vane
One of Santa's reindeer
How I love Alberta!
Clustered Broomrape / Orobanche fasciculata
Up close and personal
Deep pink Peony
Delicate Pinedrops / Pterospora andromedea
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Lest we forget
"Just" a little House Sparrow
Brugmansia or Datura?
Wonder what she's thinking
One of my favourite flowers to photograph
We ignored the warning : )
Rough-fruited Fairybells / Prosartes trachycarpa
Julia Heliconian / Dryas iulia
Eurasian Lynx
I'm blurry, but I'm cute
Resting in the meadow
Stinkhorns from 2012
The challenge of bird photography
Eastern Kingbird at Marsland Basin
Sparkles on Forgetmenot Pond
Yellow False Dandelion seedhead
Halloween colour
White-faced Whistling Duck / Dendrocygna viduata
Poppy seedpod
Trust
Nodding (Musk) Thistle / Carduus nutans
Hibiscus
Changing colour ready for the winter
Coral Fungus
Crested Wheatgrass / Agropyron cristatum
Partially Leucistic Red-breasted Nuthatch
See also...
Keywords
Authorizations, license
-
Visible by: Everyone -
All rights reserved
-
442 visits
Leucistic Red-breasted Nuthatch


In a comment box below, for comparison, I've added a previously posted photo of a "regular" Red-breasted Nuthatch taken on 30 April 2014.
Today's photo was taken on 26 October 2015. I had timed my arrival at the park to coincide with the arrival back at the parking lot of various friends who had just been on a 3-hour walk. There was one particular bird I wanted to ask about, to know if they had managed to find it - and, no, they hadn't seen it. However, they had seen a Great Horned Owl not too far from the parking lot and friend Sandy very kindly said she would come back with me and show me the location. When the two of us got back to the cars, another friend was just arriving, I told her about the Great Horned Owl and offered to show her where it was, if I could find it again. Well, hardly surprising with my sense of direction and inability to find something again, we were out of luck. Sorry, Ursula, but at least you now knew the small area where it was perched (or had been perched - it could always have flown!). We continued to look for a bird we had hoped to find, but no luck, just like everyone else. We did find this leucistic Red-breasted Nuthatch, though, and that was a nice sighting. By the way, apparently its name is Bob : )
"Many birders enjoy lifelong hobbies relying birds’ plumage alone to distinguish the hundreds of different species on their life lists, but not all birds have predictable plumage and conditions such as bird leucism can make identification more of a challenge.
Leucism is an abnormal plumage condition caused by a genetic mutation that prevents pigment, particularly melanin, from being properly deposited on a bird’s feathers. As a result, the birds do not have the normal, classic plumage colors listed in field guides, and instead the plumage have several color changes, including white patches where the bird should not have any; paler overall plumage that looks faint, diluted or bleached; or overall white plumage with little or no color discernable.
The degree of leucism, including the brightness of the white and the extent of pigment loss, will vary depending on the bird’s genetic makeup. Birds that show only white patches or sections of leucistic feathers – often in symmetrical patterns – are often called pied or piebald birds, while birds with fully white plumage are referred to as leucistic birds." From birding.about.com.
birding.about.com/od/identifyingbirds/a/leucism.htm
"An intense bundle of energy at your feeder, Red-breasted Nuthatches are tiny, active birds of north woods and western mountains. These long-billed, short-tailed songbirds travel through tree canopies with chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers but stick to tree trunks and branches, where they search bark furrows for hidden insects. Their excitable yank-yank calls sound like tiny tin horns being honked in the treetops." From AllABoutBirds.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/id
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_nuthatch
Today's photo was taken on 26 October 2015. I had timed my arrival at the park to coincide with the arrival back at the parking lot of various friends who had just been on a 3-hour walk. There was one particular bird I wanted to ask about, to know if they had managed to find it - and, no, they hadn't seen it. However, they had seen a Great Horned Owl not too far from the parking lot and friend Sandy very kindly said she would come back with me and show me the location. When the two of us got back to the cars, another friend was just arriving, I told her about the Great Horned Owl and offered to show her where it was, if I could find it again. Well, hardly surprising with my sense of direction and inability to find something again, we were out of luck. Sorry, Ursula, but at least you now knew the small area where it was perched (or had been perched - it could always have flown!). We continued to look for a bird we had hoped to find, but no luck, just like everyone else. We did find this leucistic Red-breasted Nuthatch, though, and that was a nice sighting. By the way, apparently its name is Bob : )
"Many birders enjoy lifelong hobbies relying birds’ plumage alone to distinguish the hundreds of different species on their life lists, but not all birds have predictable plumage and conditions such as bird leucism can make identification more of a challenge.
Leucism is an abnormal plumage condition caused by a genetic mutation that prevents pigment, particularly melanin, from being properly deposited on a bird’s feathers. As a result, the birds do not have the normal, classic plumage colors listed in field guides, and instead the plumage have several color changes, including white patches where the bird should not have any; paler overall plumage that looks faint, diluted or bleached; or overall white plumage with little or no color discernable.
The degree of leucism, including the brightness of the white and the extent of pigment loss, will vary depending on the bird’s genetic makeup. Birds that show only white patches or sections of leucistic feathers – often in symmetrical patterns – are often called pied or piebald birds, while birds with fully white plumage are referred to as leucistic birds." From birding.about.com.
birding.about.com/od/identifyingbirds/a/leucism.htm
"An intense bundle of energy at your feeder, Red-breasted Nuthatches are tiny, active birds of north woods and western mountains. These long-billed, short-tailed songbirds travel through tree canopies with chickadees, kinglets, and woodpeckers but stick to tree trunks and branches, where they search bark furrows for hidden insects. Their excitable yank-yank calls sound like tiny tin horns being honked in the treetops." From AllABoutBirds.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/id
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-breasted_nuthatch
FMW51 has particularly liked this photo
- Keyboard shortcuts:
Jump to top
RSS feed- Latest comments - Subscribe to the comment feeds of this photo
- ipernity © 2007-2025
- Help & Contact
|
Club news
|
About ipernity
|
History |
ipernity Club & Prices |
Guide of good conduct
Donate | Group guidelines | Privacy policy | Terms of use | Statutes | In memoria -
Facebook
Twitter
Sign-in to write a comment.