[mou] is it a robin??

[Christine Petersen]

<I saw a bird picking at old fruit on a tree today that looked
like a robin -- same size, shape and coloring EXCEPT it had a distinct white neck ring and blotchy (not streaked, not spots, various-sized roundish blotches) white marks marks from it's throat about 1/2 or 1/3 of the way down its breast. It had the same blotchy white markings --only smaller on the back of it's head and part way down its back.>

Hi Cindy - 

Sure sounds like a case of partial albinism to me! We had a partially albinistic house sparrow that frequented our yard a few years ago in San Francisco, and I did some reading on the condition; from what I read, it seems that this condition is more common in some species than in others, and tends to be geographically localized (maybe due to inbreeding).

Here's an article about partial albinism from the folks over at Journey North:

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/spring2001/species/robin/Update032001.html

This piece from Audubon mentions that there are 304 North American bird species noted to exhibit albinism, and that it's most common among robins and house sparrows:

http://www.audubon.org/chapter/in/sassafras/leaflet798/nature.html

Christine
on the shores of Glen Lake, Minnetonka, Hennepin Co.


"Our correspondences have wings -- paper birds that fly from my house to yours -- flocks of ideas crisscrossing the country. Once opened, a connection is made. We are not alone in the world."

Terry Tempest Williams, from Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place