{"id":2258,"date":"2012-01-18T10:19:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T10:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/?p=2258"},"modified":"2012-01-18T10:19:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T10:19:25","slug":"abnormal-plumage-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/2012\/01\/abnormal-plumage-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Abnormal Plumage Survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of birds with unusual marking have been reported in the BTO\u00a0abnormal plumage survey.<\/p>\n

\"Leucistic<\/a>
Leucistic Blackbird, Oxfordshire. Pic BTO \/ Dennis Simpkin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Across the country, householders have been seeing Blackbirds with strange white markings.<\/p>\n

The condition, typically referred to as \u2018leucism\u2019, is one of a number of plumage abnormalities to have been reported through the BTO abnormal plumage survey, preliminary results from which have just been published.<\/p>\n

Survey results<\/strong><\/p>\n

In less than a month, the survey has clocked up nearly 700 sightings, encompassing more than 35 different species.<\/p>\n

Three quarters of records have been of leucistic birds and, of these, nearly half have been Blackbirds.<\/p>\n

Leucistic birds may be confused with albino individuals, but the latter have pink, instead of dark eyes, and only account for 12% of survey records to date.<\/p>\n

It is not yet clear why Blackbirds appear to be particularly affected.<\/p>\n

It could be that they are unusually susceptible to the condition. However, being black or, in the case of female Blackbirds dark brown, any light-coloured feathers show up particularly clearly. Indeed, several other species with all-black, or mostly black, plumage have been spotted with white feathers fairly often, including Carrion Crow (49 records) and Jackdaw (40).<\/p>\n

Strange sightings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many other strange-looking birds have also been seen.<\/p>\n

Of the 28 \u2018melanistic\u2019 individuals recorded, which have an excess of dark-coloured feather pigmentation patterns, almost half have been Great Tits or Blue Tits, with their normally white cheeks and yellow bellies becoming dark-coloured.<\/p>\n

Other fascinating abnormalities have included a family of four chocolate-brown Jackdaws in County Antrim, a Greenfinch with orange feathers in the West Midlands and a Goldfinch with an orange rather than a red face in East Sussex.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most striking photo sent into the survey to date has been an all-white Starling, seen in Prestatyn, North Wales.<\/p>\n

Dr Tim Harrison, of the BTO garden ecology team, said: \u201cThe diversity of species recorded through the survey is impressive, ranging from common garden birds, such as House Sparrow and Chaffinch, to less frequent visitors, such as an all-white Buzzard in Aberdeenshire and a leucistic Coot in Norfolk.<\/p>\n

“On a handful of occasions, birds have looked so unusual that participants have simply had to write \u2018species unknown’.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most northerly survey record to date has been from Shetland, from where we received a report of a Blackbird with white feathers around its eyes, making it look as though it is wearing spectacles.<\/p>\n

“The most southerly record has been a leucistic House Sparrow seen last year on St Mary\u2019s, Isles of Scilly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BTO survey<\/strong><\/p>\n

The BTO Abnormal Plumage Survey is a project to find out about birds with unusual plumage characteristics in gardens.<\/p>\n

The survey was launched by the Garden Ecology Team in December 2011 and is centred on pigmentation irregularities.<\/p>\n

Anecdotal reports show that birds can turn up in gardens with a variety of unusually-coloured feathers, but questions about which species are affected most frequently, in what ways and where these birds are found remain unsolved.<\/p>\n

The Abnormal Plumage Survey is gathering data to explore these questions.<\/p>\n

If you have ever seen a bird with unusual plumage in your garden, they would really like to hear from you.<\/p>\n

Please note that plumage abnormalities associated with feather loss are not being recorded through the survey.<\/p>\n

Take part in the Abnormal Plumage Survey<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

About plumage abnormalities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Latest results<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gallery<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of birds with unusual marking have been reported in the BTO abnormal plumage survey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[440,31],"tags":[1952,296,288,4245,4232,4227,4246,4216,4242,4243,4239,2203,4235,4240,4244,4247,4236,4237,3534,4234,4233,4231],"class_list":["post-2258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-featured","category-projects","tag-blackbird","tag-blackbirds","tag-blue-tits","tag-bto","tag-carrion-crow","tag-coloured-feathers","tag-county-antrim","tag-east-sussex","tag-goldfinch","tag-great-tits","tag-greenfinch","tag-jackdaws","tag-leucism","tag-red-face","tag-simpkin","tag-strange-sightings","tag-striking-photo","tag-survey-records","tag-three-quarters","tag-white-cheeks","tag-white-feathers","tag-yellow-bellies","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/author\/admin-2\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2258"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2262,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258\/revisions\/2262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturearoundme.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}