At first sight this bird looks yellow but on close up it is more fawn coloured. Similar size to a house sparrow but plumper. I can't seem to find it on any of the identifyers and am wondering if it is a juvenile?
Hi,
this is not a House sparrow :)) It's probably a leucistic american Savannah Sparrow :))
S
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Is it usual to see such a sparrow in the UK?
Wow! What a fab little bird! I would have guessed it to be a leucisitc female house sparrow as well!
Why the change of mind Seymouraves?
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Bev C said: i thought this as well leukistic female house sparrow thought this may have been what bird mum see the other day fly out of a bush with black bird female black bird with slight leukistic
i thought this as well leukistic female house sparrow thought this may have been what bird mum see the other day fly out of a bush with black bird female black bird with slight leukistic
I was replying to this post from Bev- THIS is a leucistic savannah sparrow :))) It is very rare in the UK and this photo was taken in the USA :))
sorry did i confuse people with the image i posted
I've long been confused about the terminology for different colour mutations in birds, but someone directed me to this paper: http://www.vogelringschier.nl/DB28%282%2979-89_2006.pdf which makes all clear (well, a lot clearer).
According to this, the leucism mutation causes all-white feathers (not necessarily on the whole bird) by removing the two kinds of melanin (black/grey and red/brown) that colour birds' feathers. Unlike albinism, though, it doesn't affect the eyes, so even 100% leucistic birds have normal eyesight as well as normal eye colour and so survive much better than true pink-eyed albinos which have terrible eyesight.
Going by the article, this house sparrow is not leucistic but has one of the two mutations that causes reduced black/grey melanin. This means the red/brown melanin dominates, producing an all light brown bird. The author calls them 'brown' (when the black/grey melanin is chemically altered so it doesn't 'work' properly) or 'isabel' (when the black/grey melanin is reduced or absent).
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