Up until this past week, I have recorded two distinctively different leucistic
chickadees at my feeders every day throughout the summer months that seem to
appear when Chestnut-backed Chickadees are feeding although Black-capped
Chickadees usually show up within minutes, too.
Dottie Belknap
SW Portland
From: Tweeters [mailto:tweeters-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf ;
Of Lyn Topinka
Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2019 6:51 PM
To: tweeters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Leucistic bird sightings
Dee Dee, hi ... 3 partially leucistic BC Chicadees have been reported in the
Portland area this year (that I've noticed being reported anyways) ... 2 in
Oregon and one here at our place in Vancouver ... this is our 2nd leucistic
guy, we had another one in 2014.
Lyn Topinka
Vancouver, Wa.
NorthwestJourney.com
ColumbiaRiverImages.com
NorthwestBirding.com
Sent from my Galaxy Tab A
-------- Original message --------
From: Dee Dee <deedeeknit@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: 11/16/19 5:41 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: tweeters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Tweeters] Leucistic bird sightings
Just got around to getting my photos in order and wanted to respond to Peggy
Mundy’s sharing of seeing a leucistic Black-capped Chickadee in her yard (back
on 6 November). I find such reports of interest because this past year I have
documented 5 individuals of 4 different species of bird, that exhibit what
appear to be leucistic plumage markings. Several years ago, we had a couple of
leucistic chickadees in the yard for a couple of years, then hadn’t seen any
for several years. Since last winter we have had 2 different apparently
leucistic chickadees (one to a much greater degree than the other) as well as
an American Goldfinch, a male Spotted Towhee, and a male Northern Junco, all
with atypical whitish markings on, at the least, their heads. For those
interested, photos can be seen in my Flickr album Leucistic Birds:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/danenewarnock/albums/72157710859201313.
I find this somewhat interesting and strange, to see such a surge of sightings
in short timeframe; I am interested to learn more if others have something to
share about this phenomenon. I know of at least one other person in the area
(but not particularly close to my neighborhood who also saw a leucistic
Black-capped Chickadee in their yard this year, which looked very similar (but
not identical) to one of those frequenting my yard.
Dee Warnock
Edmonds
