Corcorax melanorhamphos
8 White-winged Chough at Watson, ACT
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| Corcorax melanorhamphos | natureguy | 13 Aug 2019 | |
| Corcorax melanorhamphos | kdm | 12 Aug 2019 |
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User's notes
One Chough had white feathers interleaved with the usual black all over the body. Is this a moult?
2 comments
13 Aug 2019
Cool. It would have to be genetic I think. I've not encountered or heard of choughs like this - might interest people if you wanted to share this to the COG chatline?
15 Aug 2019
Leucism (resulting in 'leucistic' animals) occurs infrequently throughout many vertebrates including humans (eg friends with a white spot in their dark hair). Its effect looks like a partial albinism. These individuals can be positively selected by breeders (eg think of piebald and skewbald horses) or nature (the white Bennett's wallabies on Maria Is) but more often white seems deleterious (eg the regularly reported white kangaroos around the ACT rarely seem to last). There are claims, e.g. by Jerry Olsen, ACT, that raptors target individuals in a group that look 'different', so if confirmed, such behaviour by predators would be expected to result in negative selection for leucism.
Location information
- Coordinates 149.169212-35.229199
- Places Watson, ACT
Sighting information
- 25 Abundance
- 11 Jul 2019 12:00 AM Recorded on
- kdm Recorded by
Collections
- Illilanga flagged sightings Colour mutations in wildlife kdm NatureMapr Canberra & Southern Tablelands Featured Corcorax melanorhamphos Magpie or larger Other Birds Birds
Species information
- Corcorax melanorhamphos Scientific name
- White-winged Chough Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 899.7m Recorded at altitude
Seasonal activity
-
Nesting site
JFMAMJJASOND
Record quality
Quality score
4 / 7
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- Verified by an expert moderator
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- Description
- More than one media file
- GPS evidence of location
- Additional attributes