Saturday, March 18, 2017

Bald Eagle X European Starling hybrid




Or maybe it's a partial albino Starling.. Who's to say? My lovely ladyfriend spotted this beast in our backyard during the recent snowfalls... Snowfall = more birds at your feeder, and spring snowfall = oodles of migrant blackbirds at your feeder!



Managed a few quick grabs from inside the house. Not much else to say about it - although I was pretty surprised to see just HOW the white was coming through... I am not knowledgable about the exact causes of plumage abnormalities in birds (I believe there was a great article several years ago on how the mechanisms are different in birds vs. mammals)  but it seems a little more unusual that the feathers are part normal part white (greater coverts) - or part normal part paler-than-normal (primaries) - or straight up white (head etc). 



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