Sunday, 12 August 2012

Something for the bird file

I am a committed feeder of garden birds. We have a good variety of the humdrum here in our orchard garden; blue tits, robins, blackbirds, yawn......you get the picture?

But now...we have......a sparrow.......a white sparrow.....yes, really!


I think that's pretty good for the UK.....almost as good as Virginian Cardinals, American Goldfinches and Yellow Bellied Sap Suckers!

At least....I think that it's a sparrow....what do you think? Ttony is a bit of an expert here I believe.

6 comments:

  1. Your Bird Buffet is a delight! I put out a single seed feeder in the winter, but for most of the year in gaspingly hot, sub-tropical East Texas the little fellows have lots to eat. In the summers I suspend a hummingbird feeder outside my window not because it's necessary (lots of wildflowers here) but because hummingbirds are a joy.

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  2. Yes I think it is a sparrow.But as it appears to have a dark eye, would suggest it is not an Albino,but has Leucism,caused by lack of melanin.An inherited condition I believe.
    Sandy.

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  3. Possibly an escaped white canary, which would be about the same size.

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  4. Not an expert - when I post about birds it's to ask for help, just like you!

    I agree with ACCH about it being a leucistic sparrow, though I wouldn't have thought of it if she hadn't. Though the tail feathers are the wrong colour, they look like a sparrow's, and it's happy in the company of at least two others - a group?

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  5. A few years ago there was a story in The Mail about a leucistic sparrow living in a flock of about twenty other normal ones in West Wales.They can sometimes be partially leucistic,hence the blackbird sometimes seen with a white patch.Believe they have a shorter lifespan due to predators etc.,also they are very rare.

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  6. ACCH & Ttony, yes, leucistic it is, I think. It acts like a sparrow, flies like a sparrow, lives with other sparrows, ergo etc. Mack, I don't normally summer feed but, this year's summer has been like winter.
    Daria, for a long time I thought it was a canary but now am convinced it's a sparrow.

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