White Goldfinch (1 Viewer)

[Scott Currie]

This was in our garden in Nottingham West yesterday. Can anyone shed any light on how rare this Goldfinch may be, please?

 

[Mono]

Aberrant plumage is quite common in birds. Caged bird keepers will also breed such birds.

 

[dantheman]

On the other hand such birds are quite rare/unusual at the sightings level ...

Leucistic Goldfinch (hard to see/know whether a wild bird or escaped cage bird as Mono says).

Nice sighting anyway, and welcome to BF

 

[Scott Currie]

Thank you, both..I am a relative novice to bird watching, but used to draw them from books when I was young...but I felt this was unusual.

 

[KC Foggin]

Hi there Scott and a warm welcome to you from those of us on staff here at BirdForum
We're glad you found us and please join in wherever you like.

This is the very first Leucistic Goldfinch I have seen an image of.

 

[Scott Currie]

Thank you, I'm glad I found the forum..I wouldn't have seen it myself, if our street party and been moved into the house due to rain!!

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum. I hope you enjoy your visits.

 

[delia todd]

Hi Scott and a warm welcome from me too. An amazing spot for you; it'll be so nice to be able to recognise him straightaway when he visits your feeders. I occasionally get birds in with just the odd white feather, but haven't seen any so strongly affected by leucism as this.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I hope to hear about all the birds you see when out and about.

 

[Chrisssyb]

View attachment 1450614
This was in our garden in Nottingham West yesterday. Can anyone shed any light on how rare this Goldfinch may be, please?

We had a white goldfinch in our garden in Horwich Bolton yesterday- no photo but less colour than yours especially around the face

 

[Andy Lakin]

Imho It doesn't look like an aviary bird as it is such a weird plumage. There are lots of variations out there that are crosses that have been bred tho, I had an odd bird a while ago that was pretty standard except being a few shades paler than normal. When I Googled it, it was a good match for a known form bred ny breeders but couldn't get a name for it as the article was in French.

The few odd plumaged birds I have had in the garden, Blackbirds etc have really surprised me with how infrequently they have visited the garden and how long before they have moved on.