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Bird Photos: Oddities: Leucistic Ruby-crowned
Kinglet
This Ruby-crowned Kinglet caused a few moments of
uncertainty when I saw it in a net while picking passerines out
of the mist nets at Coyote Creek Field Station in Alviso at the
south end of San Francisco Bay. At a distance, I first thought
it was a warbler because of it's light coloration and diminutive
size. However, in the hand, it just had the wrong head and bill
structure. After a few more confusing moments, it dawned on me
that it was a leucistic Ruby-crowned Kinglet. It's interesting
how a total change of color can affect one's perception. This
bird was captured and banded on November 4, 2000.
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This bird appears to have
a condition in which it is lacking in melanin, dark pigments,
probably black. One of the first things that I figured out
as a young art student was that mixing a bit of black paint
into a lot of yellow paint produced an olive-green color.
If you lessened the amount of black, the yellow would dominate
more. That's exactly what seems to be the case here. The
areas that we normally expect to be a medium olive color
are pale olive to yellowish. Some of the yellow may be reduced
also. The basic characteristics of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet
are still visible, they are simply more vague: the eyering
widening at the back, broken at the top; the light wing
bar with a darker panel below; greenish-yellow outer webbing
on the primaries; tiny bill; and orangey toe pads.
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| In this image, a normally
colored Ruby-crowned Kinglet is on the left and the leucistic
one is to the right.Structurally, they are identical. You
can see where all of the black parts on the wing of the
normal bird are pale brown-gray at most on the leucistic
individual. Even the bill lacks the deep black color. The
toe color of the normally pigmented bird is brownish on
top with orange toe pads. However, the eyes are dark black,
not pale or pinkish.
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You can see how much black
is missing on the leucistic individual. You can still see
the basic patterns of the wings: short, thin, upper white
wing bar of the lesser coverts; more prominent white wing
bar of the greater coverts; and the darker panel below the
prominent wing bar created by the dark outer webs of the
flight feathers.
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All images on this page are copyrighted by Les Chibana.
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grab the pigeon on the left and send a note. |
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