HOME: www.hiltonpond.org

GENERAL INFO

CONTENTS

RESEARCH

EDUCATION

PUBLICATIONS

MISCELLANY

WHEN IT'S DREARY AND COLD
NEXT WINTER IN THE U.S. & CANADA . . .
. . . you can join us for another warm-weather
Tropical Hummingbird Expedition to
Costa Rica, Guatemala, or Belize
in January-February 2010

As fascinated as people are about everyday hummingbirds, aberrant hummers seem even more enthralling. Extremely early or late migrant Ruby-throated Hummingbirds always attract attention while an out-of-range western hummer coming to feeders during December snowstorms is an oxymoron that creates quite a buzz. Even more coveted, however, are breeding-season hummers that look unusual--in particular those that are pure white or almost so. We speak here of albino hummers (those that lack all pigment and bear pristine white plumage and pink eyes, feet, and bill), or what we call "leucistos" (birds with mostly white feathers but having dark eyes, feet, and bill). Nothing seems to capture a hummer enthusiast's attention like a pale, ghostly hummingbird hovering against the dark green of nature. Although we've never seen a pale hummer at Hilton Pond Center, we've banded several within South Carolina and for the past few years have been compiling reports of white hummers from around the U.S. and Canada. We've also asked folks to send photos of albinos or leucistos in their yards and this year received numerous images. The best of these we share below as our 2009 edition of "White Hummingbirds."

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Our northernmost white hummingbird report this year came from Pastor Shane Ball of Laconia NH, who photographed his leucistic Ruby-throated Hummingbird (above) on 30 August 2009. Note the leucisto appears much larger than the normally pigmented ruby-throat at right; this is a commonly reported occurrence with white hummers but in most cases is probably an optical illusion.

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

The most unusually patterned hummer reported this year was a half-white, half-normal apparent Anna's Hummingbird (above) photographed by Lee Ann Raddatz at San Diego CA. The bird was present at least 1 September through 4 October 2009; many white hummers stay only a day or two. Because it has some normal green feathers, this hummingbird is referred to as being "pied" rather than leucistic. Note the bill appears bright pinkish-orange--a condition usually associated only with full albinos. Lee Ann reports "This hummer only came to the feeder when the majority of the others had finished eating. It never was aggressive as many can be and around noon seemed to be its favorite time to eat."

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

And speaking of full albinos, Freeman Cole photographed a completely unpigmented Ruby-throated Hummingbird on 19 September 2009 at Camden TN. The feet and bill are pale and the subalular apterium appears as a pink blur at the bend of the wing. (The white spot in the otherwise pink eye is an artifact of flash photography.)

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Chuck & Connie Clark of Arroll MO submitted the above photo of a defensive Ruby-throated Hummingbird leucisto, seen on 19 September 2009. We often hear that white hummers chase off other "normal" conspecifics but doubt they are any more agressive--just more obvious in their actions. Also of interest in this image are the leucistic bird's lighter tail tips--identical to the white tip pattern on the normally pigmented ruby-throat it is defending against. (WARNING: White tail tips on autumn RTHU are NOT a reliable indicator of a bird's sex; that's because all females have other tail feathers tipped in white, but so do immature males!)

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

The sharpest photo submitted this year was the one above taken by Ron Basham and sent by Adam Walker, who hosted his leucistic Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Shreveport LA for several days around 25 September 2009. The bird has hints of tan and gray on otherwise white plumage, and the bill and feet are dark brown rather than black.

In frontal view, it's obvious Mr. Walker's leucisto is an immature male Ruby-throated Hummingbird just beginning to get his dark throat. We couldn't tell from the photo whether these gorget feathers were iridescent red like a normal male ruby-throat's, but we're guessing they were at least metallic in appearance. After all, iridescent feathers get their "color" from tiny grooves and air bubbles--not from pigment--and iridescence should be unaffected by lack of melanin. (By the way, based on personal experience we'd say this particular bird is unusual because it's a male; the great majority of white hummers we encounter are female.)

That the hummer in the photo above has a partial gorget is absolute proof of his age: He HAD to have hatched in 2009. That being the case, it's alarming this leucistic bird's tail feathers are already heavily worn. Such wear also occurs in white tail tips of "normal" Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, but it seldom affects their wing feathers. That's because melanin is a structural pigment that actually ADDS strength to feathers. Thus, an albinistic or leucistic hummingbird's unpigmented wing feathers are likely to suffer from just as much wear as the tail feathers in the photo above--not a good scenario for a bird that needs undamaged wings to fly up to 2,000 miles to the Neotropics.

We speculate these "defective" birds simply don't complete the migratory route, their white wings wearing out long before they get close to wintering grounds in Mexico or Central America. But that's the way nature works, with aberrant hummingbirds such as albinos, leucistos, and pieds succumbing to their deficiencies while normal individuals survive to pass their genes to offspring in the next generation. Some of those youngsters invariably turn out to be albinos, leucistos, or pieds--of which we hope to get a few photos next year for our 2010 edition of "White Hummingbirds."

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center
All photos are the copyrighted property of the photographers

Thanks to everyone who submitted reports & photos of white hummingbirds.
Please e-mail additional reports to RESEARCH.

Comments or questions about this week's installment?
Please send an E-mail message to INFO.

Be sure to scroll down for an account of all
birds banded or recaptured during the period,
plus other nature notes of interest.

Thanks to the following fine folks for recent gifts in support of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History and/or Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project. Your tax-deductible contributions allow us to continue writing, photographing, and sharing "This Week at Hilton Pond." (Please see Support if you'd like to make a gift of your own. You can also contribute by ordering an Operation RubyThroat T-shirt.)

• None this week

Using Network for Good via Facebook's "Causes," 12 people have made contributions to "Help the Hummingbirds" in honor of Bill Hilton Jr.'s 63rd birthday and bringing the total to $519--short of the $1,260 goal but nice nonetheless. Even though 15 September 2009 has come and gone, you can still donate to this birthday cause by going to Facebook. Contributing this week was: