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Fully Leucistic Cardinal (1 Viewer)

Robin Harrison

Well-known member
Paris,Ontario area.....don't know how uncommon these are but it was a bit like seeing a unicorn emerge.
Very exciting....early morning, rainy, very poor lighting conditions.

BETTER IMAGE BELOW.....
 

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Not sure what I am seeing here. To me it looks like a female Northern Cardinal. Perhaps an immature but I'm not seeing any leuscisim here. Point me in the right direction.
 
Immatures of NoCa are supposed to have black bills I think, so if it is a female we should compare to e.g., this: https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Image:IMG_98233.JPG

I feel it has less black pigment than normal but probably normal amounts of read pigment. Given what I just said, it could be a young bird - but that would be very early in the year for Ontario?

Niels
 
As in the message title, fully leucistic N.cardinal, female I guess because she is accompanied by a male.
I'm calling it this not from personal experience but from this web site. It's the first seriously leucistic bird I've seen but from Sibley's description, if there is a gradation from "partially" to "fully", she is at the "fully" end of the range.......she is closer to being white than the usual pale brown.
www.sibleyguides.com/2011/08/abnormal-coloration-in-birds-melanin-reduction/
In my image the brown is more apparent than seeing her live. As I said the light was terrible.
 
Ah! I missed the white on top of the bird but I would not call this fully leucistic but partial leucistic.
 
Maybe this gives a better idea of this bird.
Essentially white with a very pale brown flush on it's breast....I would have thought fully leucistic, but other than the web site I referenced, I don't know.
To see it live was a real jaw-dropper.
I was with 2 other experienced birders who live in Ontario and we see these at our feeders and in the wild every day....we were speechless (very briefly!)
Robin
 

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