[texbirds] Re: South Padre "odd" sparrow
- From: "Bert Frenz" <bertf@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jsmd@xxxxxxx>, <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 07:38:15 -0500
I saw and photographed a similar sparrow 5 February 2005 at Monte Alban,
Oaxaca, Mexico. It did not have the aberrant orange feathers, but it did
have yellow feathers. As in the South Padre bird, not all feathers were
aberrant. So, I was able to deduce that the bird was a Lincoln's Sparrow.
The sparrow is exhibiting a form of xanthochroism, which means an aberrance
in the yellow pigment.
During the discussion at the time, Tony Gallucci probably provided the best
explanation of the odd sparrow when he wrote:
"The fact that you can determine pattern and coloration enough to ID this
bird tells me you're not looking at loss of darker pigments exposing the
yellow. That would be hypomelanism, probably combined with hypoerythrism.
And would not result in yellow where yellow is not normally.
If the bird retains black and red pigments, but has an excess of yellow,
notably in areas of no, or very light pigments, this would be hyperxanthism
(which is a form of xanthochroism, which simply indicates an aberrance in
the yellow pigment). And that's how i'd describe this bird myself.
All of your determination of locations of yellow are consistent with an
excess of yellow, and no loss of darker pigments. The most problematical is
the "gray replaced by yellow" of the lower sides. That strikes me as being
an easy "color" to cover by an excess of pigment. Also, without specimens in
hand, i wonder if that gray isn't caused more by the shadows of loosely
barbed feathers in that region, in which case there would be nothing to
"cover" per se."
-------------------------------
Bert Frenz
Bert2@xxxxxxxxxxx
author, A Birder's Guide to Belize, 2013
Birds of the Oaks & Prairies of Texas
www.bafrenz.com
-----Original Message-----
From: texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:texbirds-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Stan DeOrsey
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 8:50 PM
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: antshrike1@xxxxxxx
Subject: [texbirds] South Padre "odd" sparrow
Dan Jones posted the note below with links to two of his great photos of the
odd bird which no one has explained. I do disagree with Dan that the orange
/ red on the head was pollen or a sticky substance, I believe it was the
color of the feathers, much too even and nothing stuck to it, the bird is
clean. But what is it? The size is Chipping / Clay-colored size.
Thank you, Dan for posting the photos.
On 4/4/2013 8:32 PM, antshrike1@xxxxxxx wrote:
> And then there was the psychadelic Spizella sparrow. It really had people
confused. It looks like it has gotten into some kind of pollen or sticky
substance.
>
>
> http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n610/antshrike/SpizellaIMG_6920_re
> size_zps2fe4431d.jpg
>
>
> http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n610/antshrike/SpizellaIMG_6660_re
> size_zps9a097c37.jpg
--
Stan DeOrsey jsmd@xxxxxxx
Harlingen
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