Photo Study Of A Leucistic Red-tailed Hawk And Other Birds At Cape May, November 3rd, 2010

    Ed Norman, Mike DeBonis and I were able to get to  Cape May this week. The highlight for us was a beautiful leucistic Red-tailed Hawk which first posed on a wire
    on Seagrove Avenue and later at the Lighthouse  Pool.

I photographed the leucistic Red-tail above at the Lighthouse Pool

Ed Norman was able to get the two shots above when the bird flew down Seagrove Avenue:

 I got the flight shot above at the Lighthouse Pool

    In any event, leucism is unusual in birds but not rare. Interestingly, albinism only applies to a total absence of melanin. Since some colors come from other pigments, such as
    carotenoids, it is possible for a bird to be albinistic and still have color. Leucism, on the other hand,  applies to all pigments. It is also possible for a bird to be completely white
    and still have melanin in the body. In this case, the bird would be considered leucistic and would have dark eyes because the mutation only applies to depositing melanin in
    the feathers. Albinistic birds have pink eyes because without melanin in the body, the only color in the eyes comes from the blood vessels behind the eyes. And since leucism is
    a deposition problem,  it makes sense that birds with white patches would be leucistic. Consequently leucism comes in two main varieties — paleness, an equal reduction of
    melanin in all feathers; and pied, an absence of melanin in some feathers creating white patches. (Cornell BNA; Wikipedia)

`  Also, there were lots of other birds on Cape May. We searched The Meadows, the areas around the Lighthouse, Rea Farm and, of course, Higbee Beach:

Juvenile Female Cooper's Hawk In A Tree Adjacent To New England Avenue

Golden-crowned Kinglet In A Field At Higbee

This Beautiful Yellow-rumped Warbler At The Meadows Was Just One Of Thousands On The Cape

    To see a larger image of any of the photos below, please click on either the  thumbnails or the captions...thanks!

 Howard B. Eskin 2010       Please email your comments to hbeskin@voicenet.com      Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index