melanistic is when the bird has an abnormal amount of black feathers.
nice find, i have yet to come across an albino bird (partial or not)
congratz
I spotted a white-feathered American Crow yesterday, hopped out of the car and clicked one shot before he flew off with his all-black cohorts. It appears that several of his primary feathers are pure white. Can anyone tell me the proper adjective for such a bird? Is it "melanistic" or "partial albino" or...?
(I hope the photo is attached - I'm new at this.)
Bert Kersey, Fallbrook, Southern California
it is a partial albino, meaning that it has abnormally white feathers but it's whole body is not white just a portion of it.
melanistic is when the bird has an abnormal amount of black feathers.
nice find, i have yet to come across an albino bird (partial or not)
congratz
This is actually an area where there is a lot of disagreement over the terminology.
Some people would describe it as a partial albino.
Some would say that there is no such thing as a partial albino and describe it as leucisitic.
Some people would only use the term leucistic to describe a bird that was uniformly paler than it should be (but not white).
So take your pick!!