Update: GSW with Leucism or Erythrism (1 Viewer)

Earlier this year, I posted a pic of an "ism-istic" (I just made that up ) Great Spotted Woodpecker - the consensus was it was a female with either Leucism or Erythrism. She's been visiting the garden regularly, and I was curious as to how her young would be affected... Would she find a mate and breed normally? Would her young inherit her condition? etc. I thought a few others in the forum might be interested as well.

Well, I got both answers this morning. As you can see from the pics (poor light through double glazing etc), she bred successfully, and this youngster looks completely normal. I couldn't get a decent pic of them interacting, as they was trying to avoid the Squirrels that were charging through my trees, but I've attached one blurry pic of them together. They arrived together and left together, so I'm pretty sure it's mother and her youngster... but without a feeding pic, I guess there's room for doubt.

So I guess either it's skipped a generation, or maybe signs of Leucism/Erythrism will show after post-juvenile moult. I'll keep my eye on how the youngster develops... assuming one of the Sparrowhawks doesn't get it.

Oh, one other thing; I'm pretty sure the male died (I posted a pic of him looking like he was quite ill), so she's brought this youngster up on her own.

It just occurred to me that most haven't seen a clear-enough pic of the female, which makes this thread a bit pointless (unless you find the original thread). So, for any that are interested (I'm guessing not many ) here's a clearer pic of the female - notice the brown and the yellowish feathers, which a non-Leucistic/Erythristic GSW wouldn't have.

Thank you for the interesting update, Chris.

Hi Kits... (I'm glad at least one person found it interesting ) I've a slightly better pic of the youngster that I'll probably upload to my gallery tomorrow.

The parent bird is leucistic or schizochromistic.

Erythrism indicates an excess of reddish pigment (which is extremely rare). The bird here does not have excess red pigment, but a reduction in a form of melanin. There are many different types of melanin (forming brown, black or grey pigments when densely populated). In your bird one melanin form is lacking, leaving brown behind. Whether this is because a melanin pigment type is completely missing (meaning the bird must have two melanin types, for brown to be remaining afterwards), or there is one melanin type which is only partially showing.

Note if it had erythrism, it wouldn't show over black. Imagine you are painting and you have a black layer of paint. If you try and paint red over it, you wouldn't see anything but black. For erythrism to show in this manner the black melanin has to be reduced first, then erythrism has to set in. The chance of having both of these conditions together is extremely miniscule and may never have even happened in documented history.

EDIT. TL;DR this is not what erythrism would do to a GSW.