Something wrong with robin?

[Kevin 546]

Have never seen a American robin with this much white (that I know of). Is there something wrong with it?

Palo Pinto Co 2-4-19

Edited February 6 by Kevin

[millipede 207]

it's partially leucistic.  There's not anything wrong with it. It's a color variation sort of like if a bird were an albino only with leucism an animal isn't missing ALL of its pigment... will have normal color eyes, etc,  unlike an albino.

This sort of thing can make ID's interesting at times. The other winter someone reported a snow bunting here in AR that a lot of people were ready to go chase(some did I think) but after several people examined the photos better it was determined to be a leucistic dark-eyed junco. It was pretty white so it threw people off for sure.

[Kevin 546]

Ty.

[Kerri 128]

Growing up in Southern Ontario Canada we had a mostly leurcistic robin that would appear for years in the spring time. Was easy to spot her :) As a child I called it the albino robin lol.

[Tony Leukering 122]

It is leucistic.  Being "partially leucistic" is very much like being "partially pregnant."  It is a genetic anomaly that is variably expressed.

[akiley 653]

7 hours ago, Tony Leukering said:

It is leucistic.  Being "partially leucistic" is very much like being "partially pregnant."  It is a genetic anomaly that is variably expressed.

Thanks, Tony. I’ve often fallen into the trap of calling it that.