Does leucism affect the strength of a birds feathers? (1 Viewer)

[Evan Atkinson]

A couple months back, I was observing the carrion crows which frequent my school's campus, and I watched one crow without any leucism fly up into a tall conifer. Soon after a second bird flew after it and this crow in particular had some brown mixed in with the black and the middle of the wings were white. What was interesting was that the first bird effortlessly glided up to the tree whilst the one with a loss of pigment and slight leucism flapped constantly to get onto the branch. So my question is, does leucism affect a birds ability to fly correctly?

Many thanks,
Ev

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Melanin is known to make feathers stronger and more resistant to abrasion, hence the reason quoted for many species (such as many gulls) having dark wingtips. Conversely, lack of normal pigment in albinism or leucism would result in weaker, more abraded feathers and hence flying being more difficult. Obviously this is a major oversimplification, over evolutionary time various species have evolved strong white feathers.

 

[Evan Atkinson]

Intriguing, could that be why gulls circle on thermals so much, because their wings are a bit weaker than most birds? Or is it normal that they circle often?

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

If you find pictures of leucistic gulls you may see some with really abraded wingtips. However, the circling behaviour is unlikely to be connected (much), it is more a suitable means of travelling the distances they use for foraging.