tion, it was determined to be a second

year leucistic Barred Owl. The description

is as follows: the overall appearance of

the bird was white, but it had dark eyes

and a yellow bill, similar to normal plum-

aged Barred Owls. The head appeared

white, but a limited number of feathers on

the left side of the face showed some ex-

tremely faint tan barring. A noticeable fea-

ture was the tricolored head feathers, with

the distal ~0.5 inch white, the middle ~0.5

inch tan, and the basal ~0.5 to 0.75 inch

grayish. The perimeter facial disk feathers

were brownish to tan; however, the feath-

ers within the facial disk were white. The

breast was mostly white with a few feath-

ers having extremely faint tan barring in

the upper breast, and virtually no bar-

ring present in the lower breast. The flank

feathers were entirely white. The majority

of back feathers were white, with a few

showing pale tan barring in the upper

back region. Of interest, the distal half

to two-thirds of the body feathers was

white, while the basal half to one-third

was grayish. Both wings showed visible

pale tan barring on the primaries and sec-

ondaries; however, the barring became

less prominent in the secondaries towards

the outer feathers, with completely white

tertials. The lesser coverts were uniform-

ly faded and tan, while the median and

secondary coverts showed reduced tan

barring (less prominent in the secondary

coverts). The barring on the upper and

underside of the tail was faded and tan.

The undertail coverts and rump had rela-

tively faded, tan barring. The leg and foot

feathers were white, although, they were

“dirty” in appearance. Nearly all of the

talons were black; however, the hallux on

the right foot was pinkish.

The lack of leucistic owls documented

in North America over the last century or

more suggests that this abnormal plumage

may be extremely rare, although, it seems

somewhat anomalous to have two leucis-

tic Barred Owls found in Minnesota in

recent history. Perhaps with the increased

interest in birding, especially birders seek-

ing owls, there will be additional reported

sightings of leucistic owls.

Acknowledgments

I sincerely thank Michael Furtman and

Debbie Waters for letting me know about

this bird and for the opportunity to cap-

ture and inspect this unique individual.

Also, I would like to thank Michael Furt-

man for providing photographs. Thanks

to Anthony Hertzel and Jim Lind for pro-

viding valuable comments which great-

ly improved this article. Finally, I need

to recognize and thank my wife, Sarah

Grosshuesch, for her continued support

and encouragement.

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Spring 2006