Is this an Albino Blue Jay (1 Viewer)

[Nascar Nut]

Happened to look out at my bird feeder late in the evening last night and saw this bird. The photo are not the best quality. It was almost dark and I took the pictures through the screen. It is the same size as a blue jay.

http://nascarnut1963.home.mchsi.com/temp/10.JPG

http://nascarnut1963.home.mchsi.com/temp/11.JPG

http://nascarnut1963.home.mchsi.com/temp/12.JPG

 

[Beverlybaynes]

Well, it's definitely a Blue Jay, but it's not a pure albino.

Albinism would have given you a completely white bird, with pink skin and pink eyes. Pure albinos are relatively rare, probably because their lack of color means no natural camouflaging, which makes them highly vulnerable to predators. Obviously, some do survive, or the gene for albinism wouldn't be passed on.

So this is most likely a leucisitic (my spelling may be a bit off) bird, meaning that it has retained some color. Leucistic birds aren't all that uncommon -- if you look carefully, you can see a good number of birds that have paler colors or whitish streaks through their normal plumage colors -- I saw a Robin the other day with a pale salmon breast and a rather light grayish back.

Does make your bird look rather ghostly, though!

Thanks for posting the pics -- makes the ID MUCH easier!

 

[gthang]

Wow! beatiful picture fellow nascar nut!

PS, You watching the later today?

 

[Nascar Nut]

Well, it's definitely a Blue Jay, but it's not a pure albino.

Albinism would have given you a completely white bird, with pink skin and pink eyes. Pure albinos are relatively rare, probably because their lack of color means no natural camouflaging, which makes them highly vulnerable to predators. Obviously, some do survive, or the gene for albinism wouldn't be passed on.

So this is most likely a leucisitic (my spelling may be a bit off) bird, meaning that it has retained some color. Leucistic birds aren't all that uncommon -- if you look carefully, you can see a good number of birds that have paler colors or whitish streaks through their normal plumage colors -- I saw a Robin the other day with a pale salmon breast and a rather light grayish back.

Does make your bird look rather ghostly, though!

Thanks for posting the pics -- makes the ID MUCH easier!

Thanks alot for the info. I sure wish the photos would have been better. I havn't seen the bird around anymore.

 

[Hal]

Here is a bit of useless but interesting info. I'll state outright that "All Blue Jays have a few black markings, but are mostly light gray and white."

They have no blue pigment in their feathers. The colour we see is due entirely to how the light is refracted by the crystals in the feathers and reflected back to the observer. Everything else is absorbed except the blue wavelengths. The white feathers reflect all the light & black absorbs everything.

This is an easy thing to prove if you can get a blue jay feather. Look at any light source through it and the blue will magically disappear. All you will see is gray.

This bird may indeed be leucistic and not show any blue in daylight. But it may be white because the ambient light that late in the day has no blue in it.

I had a banded (ringed) Blue Jay who came to my feeders looking typically blue and when it stayed until dark it changed into a pale ghost. It was blue in the flash picture I took and when I turned on the outside floodlights.

Your bird may still be around, but unless it comes late, you'll probably never see another like it.

Now I'm curious, so here's a question for everybody! Do the rest of the worlds jays exhibit this type of colouration caused by feather structure? I don't want anybody to go out and assasinate a poor jay just to answer the question though!!! They all moult sometime.

"AAAGH" Now I want to know why museum skins fade if there isn't any pigment to change or lose. "Thats it! I'm going to bed."

Hal

 

[Nascar Nut]

There was a blue jay feeding at my feeder minutes before that one and it was blue. I have several blue jays that feed here and I have never seen one that was white like that. There was still some sun also. I have never heard of this befoe. The next time I see a blue jay feather I will test it. I don't beleive this was an ordinary blue jay. I have seen regular blue jays at my feeder this late and they are still blue.

 

[gthang]

Yeah, to me also, no matter how much light there is, if there is any light at all, blue will show up. I wonder what a blue jay would look like under a black light? Is there a website that shows birds under different colors/forms of light?

 

[Hal]

I never said it wasn't white, just said it's possible it may not be. Now my curiosity's aroused I'll do a little experimenting to answer gthang's question. I'm still sure if the light source has no blue the bird shouldn't look blue.
I'll take some pix under UV, daylight/midday sunl, & move in increments toward sunset/twilight. Will also try a white light with blue wavelengths filtered out & see what happens. Just have to find a few feathers first. Will post the results.

Hal

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

All colours are the result of reflections (or lack of). I.e. if no blue wave-lengths are found in the light-source, all things having blue colours would appear "not-blue" - no matter how the blue was originally formed. It's rather like if there is no light (dark!), everything appears black, no matter what colour or how they were formed! The same can be said about the pure colours red and yellow. The cones in our eyes don't see anything that isn't send to them! A wellknown example (though it has nothing to do with birds) is the light in public toilets. Many places they have installed special lamps that send out very few red/blue wave-lenghts thereby making it harder for druck-addicts to see their blood vessels.
The question in the Blue Jay is if the colour is due to structures (like hummingbirds) or particles, as more common. The easy (but not always trustworthy) way to see if colours are due to structures, is if they appear reflective ("shining"), the wellknown example being the gorgets of hummingbirds. The Blue Jay is another wellknown example of a bird having structural colours, most obvious in the blue of the tail and the wings.
Regarding if the blue in jays in the rest of the world is structural: I know of several examples from the Neotropics and of course there's "my Jay" (G. glandarius) of Europe.

Back to the Blue Jay in the pics of the first thread: It is obviously leucistic... if just caused by the light there would still have been markings of the dark stripes on the tail & wings.

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

Could just aswell post a comment on the fading colours!

Structural colours don't fade, but of course nothing is eternal. However, often you find pigmented (=particles) colours in the same feathers. Many, but not all, pigmented colours disappear in time. The atoms forming many pigment are rather unstable, and even many live birds kept in captivity will fade after a relatively short time if they don't get the pigment either through the sun and/or food. Just think about the flamingos...