BUD AND I CELEBRATED OUR 50TH Wedding Anniversary Friday, so I may be delayed in paying you a visit this weekend...
First, I wanted to begin with this unusually colored Gallinule [Moorhen]. I spotted this early one morning and couldn't decipher if it was a rare leucistic. The common coloring is dark, charcoal gray on the adult Common Gallinule as seen in the beginning photo. I also thought maybe it is an immature [teen, or 1st year plumage...nope! Only adults have the red shield!!] Now, if it were albino [which in my opinion, it's not...true albinism would have no pigmentation with the eye color]. With leucism, the feather pigmentation with birds would lack color. But, on the other hand, I asked a fellow birder his opinion and he shared a link with me to show "partial albino". This may be the case, altho I've never heard 'partial albino', until now. In my opinion either it IS albino or not. So, I introduce what I'd say is...
...a leucistic Common Gallinule, only because of its black/brown-red eye color which is normal
COMMON GALLINULE [aka Moorhen]
photos taken: Port Aransas
habitat map: Gallinule
ALTAMIRA ORIOLE
photos taken: North Padre Island
habitat map: Oriole
VIOLET CROWNED HUMMINGBIRD
photos taken: Calallen, Texas
habitat map: Hummingbird
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First, I wanted to begin with this unusually colored Gallinule [Moorhen]. I spotted this early one morning and couldn't decipher if it was a rare leucistic. The common coloring is dark, charcoal gray on the adult Common Gallinule as seen in the beginning photo. I also thought maybe it is an immature [teen, or 1st year plumage...nope! Only adults have the red shield!!] Now, if it were albino [which in my opinion, it's not...true albinism would have no pigmentation with the eye color]. With leucism, the feather pigmentation with birds would lack color. But, on the other hand, I asked a fellow birder his opinion and he shared a link with me to show "partial albino". This may be the case, altho I've never heard 'partial albino', until now. In my opinion either it IS albino or not. So, I introduce what I'd say is......a leucistic Common Gallinule, only because of its black/brown-red eye color which is normal
COMMON GALLINULE [aka Moorhen]
photos taken: Port Aransas
habitat map: Gallinule
...another rarity I spotted while at Packery Channel Park early one morning was a species of Oriole not usually seen in my area of Texas. For the most these are residents of Old Mexico, but, on a rare occasion will travel to the very southern tip of Texas [Brownsville, about 200 miles from where I found the bird]. At one time, before their name change, they were known as Lichtenstein oriole. Now, Altamira [Altamira, a port city in Old Mexico]
ALTAMIRA ORIOLE
photos taken: North Padre Island
habitat map: Oriole
The last rare bird seen was by invitation from the "Hawk Watch" dude!!! In his yard, he had a visitor to his feeders that is normally not here in our area. Seen only in Old Mexico and the southern border of Arizona and New Mexico. He invited us avid birders to come and hopefully have it show itself. When I got there around 9 a.m. recently, I sat down on one of the patio chairs and waited...not for long tho, it flew into a tree and perched on a branch. Sadly, it was well shaded at its perch and the markings were nearly invisible....except identifiable because of its red, long, beak!!! Then, it came out a bit and I zoomed in. It wasn't long before it left the area, and with the mosquitoes chomping away at my legs and ankles, I left too.....
VIOLET CROWNED HUMMINGBIRD
photos taken: Calallen, Texas
habitat map: Hummingbird
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