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Pileated with strange coloration. ONTARIO CANADA (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Tom Lusk
- Start date
The pale brown feathers are old, very worn, and bleached. Not too unusual this time of year. The white feathers, however, in the median converts and at least one primary, are leucistic (lack melanin). Pileateds occasionally have white blotches, and some think that the reported Ivory-billed in Arkansas and Florida may have been leucistic Pileated.
Andy
Andy
@ Kratter Detail photo of feathers.
Here is a 100% crop showing feather detail.
To my untrained eye, it looks like the brownish feathers are in poor shape. Would old feathers change colors slowly - in this case from black to brown as the supply of melanin gradually decreases? It looks like some of the shoulder area feathers are close to being shed.
Here is a 100% crop showing feather detail.
To my untrained eye, it looks like the brownish feathers are in poor shape. Would old feathers change colors slowly - in this case from black to brown as the supply of melanin gradually decreases? It looks like some of the shoulder area feathers are close to being shed.
Attachments
Pileateds have a complete body molt in late summer, thus those worn feathers are almost a year old. They slowly wear and pale over the course of the year. This is common in juvenile gulls, where you see very worn and bleached birds by April. Your bird may have been in poor condition when it last molted and the feathers are in poorer shape than normal. Leucism can also result form poor condition.
Andy
