Pied Birds

[nightshade]

I have noticed on several occasions that there are several black birds
with a lot of white feathers;a Black Bird,a Jackdaw and a Crow they
were actually all in the garden at the same time (after I shared some
Christmas cake with them)
Is this something they are eating (unlikely) a local chemical pollution or
are genetics kicking in on three seperate types of bird(ok two are corvids)
at the same time?

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I have noticed on several occasions that there are several black birds
with a lot of white feathers;a Black Bird,a Jackdaw and a Crow they
were actually all in the garden at the same time (after I shared some
Christmas cake with them)
Is this something they are eating (unlikely) a local chemical pollution or
are genetics kicking in on three seperate types of bird(ok two are corvids)
at the same time?

I would say that it is genetics rather than anything they eat. Blackbirds in particular seem fairly prone to this but I can't say that I have seen any Jackdaws, crows displaying white.
Roger

[Wolfhill]

Perhaps a Magpie? Sorry Ignore what I wrote I didn't read your text properly sorry

[The Valley sparrow]

In my area there are many pied Jackdaws,and has been for several years now, and the number is increasing. One spectacular specimen, is an albino, who seems to be more of fur than feather, for it has the ferret white look (yellowing).

[dbozkurt]

Took this picture of a blackbird in our garden in July, Outer Hebrides. Got excited at first because thought it was another species and realised it wasn't. Read a lot about the blackbirds with albino/pied tendancies but had never seen one down in Surrey. Not sure if this one never revisted our garden or it grew a darker winter plumage but never saw it again.

[IMG][/IMG]

Debs

[lol geoff]

There used to be an albino magpie in Hall Place Gardens in Bexley Kent. The areas of its plumage that are normaly black were a slightly yellow shade of white.

[honeybee]

See a lot of blackbirds with white on them and a few crows. One regular visitor was called the vicar due to the dog collar.

[Tom Charles]

Sounds like partial albinism. Both parents need to carry the defective gene for this to occur; and is usually seen in a good number of their feathers. Obviously a full albino bird would be all white; and tend to not live too long, as they fall to predators a lot quicker.

Disease or injury can cause the odd feather to grow without pigment.

A 'leucistic' bird tends to be a paler than normal colour.

Tom

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

dbozkurt,

That bird in the picture just looks like a standard youngster to me, rather than an particial albino.

We don't seen to get any pied birds around here, certainly none i've really noticed anyway