Birds
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Magpie or larger
Sighting 4231897

Corcorax melanorhamphos

8 White-winged Chough at Watson, ACT

Corcorax melanorhamphos at Watson, ACT - 11 Jul 2019 12:00 AM
Corcorax melanorhamphos at Watson, ACT - 11 Jul 2019 12:00 AM
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Identification history

Corcorax melanorhamphos 13 Aug 2019 natureguy
Corcorax melanorhamphos 12 Aug 2019 kdm

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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

ArcherCallaway wrote:
   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?
DonFletcher wrote:
   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.

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