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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Aberrant Great Tit (1 Viewer)

Upekkha

Upekkha

Well-known member
Hi,

I came across this aberrant great tit at a local reserve last year and managed to get an ok shot of it. At the time I didn't have a clue what it was, so sent it off to the BTO for an ID. They got back to me stating that it was a great tit (I originally thought it was some sort of blue tit) with slight melanism.

I can't seem to find much info online about this, can anyone shed any light on this please? Thanks in advance

Dave
 

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That's so interesting Dave - I've not seen a picture of a Great Tit like this.

The Opus Dictionary has some information about melanism, with links to other colour variations, which you might find interesting.

It seems to be a very complex subject!
 
fugl said:
Striking photo. Seems to me that your bird is more than "slightly" melanistic. ;)
Did a little googling and came up with this--

http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw/about/background/projects/plumage/results/species_types

Compared to leucism, melanism appears to be a quite rare condition in British birds with Great Tit about halfway down the frequency list of plumage abnormalities of all kinds.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for that, it would appear that I didn't look very hard did I?!! Interesting reading....I must admit I've seen a few birds in my garden with some form of slight plumage abnormality but never to that extent.

Dave
 
delia todd said:
That's so interesting Dave - I've not seen a picture of a Great Tit like this.

The Opus Dictionary has some information about melanism, with links to other colour variations, which you might find interesting.

It seems to be a very complex subject!
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Delia, it all makes for an interesting read & I've learnt something today!

Dave
 
delia todd said:
That's so interesting Dave - I've not seen a picture of a Great Tit like this.

The Opus Dictionary has some information about melanism, with links to other colour variations, which you might find interesting.

Hi Delia

It seems to be a very complex subject!
Click to expand...

The things that you find out - so interesting!

We hear lots about 'white' feathering (albino) which can be obscure, but rarely black feathering in birds

We live and learn ;)

Regards
Kathy
x
 
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