Birdsong Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 I have a family of cardinals with unusual color variations. I sent a picture to Cornell, and they have concluded it is leucism--hereditary but not contagious or harmful for the bird. It is similar to albinism as it involves melanin. At least it got me bleaching all my bird feeders again. Here are some of the family members: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MN Shutterbug Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 I had never heard of such a thing. The beak sure looks weird on the second one. Sweet shots, especially the last one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbl Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 Very nice work birdsong, and thanks for the information as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayinMN Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 Very nice pictures and what an interesting find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Royce Aardahl Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 Nice pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdsong Posted November 24, 2008 Author Share Posted November 24, 2008 The beak sure looks weird on the second one. This is a juvenile. His beak has not entirely changed from dark to orange. If you look carefully, he has a drop of water on the lower beak, and on the upper beak, what looks like a shadow or anomaly is actually dark beak. It is all there. I took this shot through the glass of my slider because I didn't want to scare him off. It might skew things a little. I had the door open for the other two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micpic Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Nice images and thanks for the info on Leucism. I'm glad to hear you clean your feeders. I rotate mine so when they get empty I can clean them up good.Mic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Foss Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Thanks for sharing that, birdsong. I've run into some leucistic birds before, but never a cardinal. Nice to see something unusual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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