Leucistic American Robin Photos

One of the fun things about my job as a naturalist is that people send me photos of what they are seeing in their neck of the woods and people do see some wonderful things.

Ann, who lives in Forest Lake, Minnesota, sent these two photos of a rather interesting looking American Robin that frequents her yard. It has a white back, white tail, white wings, white head, etc. yet is clearly an American Robin.

This is known in the scientific realm as a partially leucistic American Robin. What I find fascinating is that I've actually seen a robin with nearly the exact same pattern of leucism before. There are dozens of examples of this particular pattern online. See here, here, here, here and here for just a few examples.

So why isn't this an albino robin? Well, many people would argue that it is. They would use the term "partial albino" but technically albinism is a genetic condition that wipes out the body's ability to create the pigment melanin. Since albinism is genetic it is always systemic, i.e. affecting all of the animal. Ann's photos clearly show that this is not the case.


If this was a true albino, it would also have white legs, white beak, and white breast. It would also have those famous pink albino eyes. None of this is true for this bird. Especially noticeable, the breast is the normal rusty red color of an American Robin.

How do we get a partially white animal then? Enter Leucism. Leucism results from defects in pigment cells. It can affect just one cell or all of the cells on an animal. This means we can get a bird with just one odd white feather or, as in this case, lots of white feathers. We can even get a leucistic bird with all white feathers but normal colored eyes, beak and legs.

For more reading on color aberrations in birds you can download my favorite and oft cited journal article on the topic, Not Every White Bird is an Albino: Sense and Nonsense About Color Aberrations in Birds by Hein van Grouw. Wonderfully, it is available for free download.

~Kirk

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Leucistic American Robin

Fellow twin cities naturalist Timothy Boyle had an eye out for wildlife even while sipping on a coffee at a coffeehouse last week. While walking down the street with his camera he spotted this odd looking American Robin in a yard. The bird he photographed is a great example of partial leucism. I've blogged about this condition before. It can give us American Goldfinches with white patches or even make a female purple finch look like a newly discovered species. Collard finch anyone?

As always happens with a photo like this, when he posted it online there was some of the discussion about the terms partial albino versus partially leucistic. While the term partial albino is bandied about a lot, it isn't really correct. Albinism is a genetic condition that wipes out the body's ability to create the pigment melanin. Using the above robin as an example, if it was truly an alboino, it would also have white legs, white beak, white head, white breast, etc. It would also have those famous pink albino eyes. The reason they look pink is that you can see the red from the blood in the retina. The reason you cannot have a partial albino is that since albinism is genetic it is always systemic, i.e. affecting all of the animal.

How do we get a partially white animal then? Enter Leucism. Leucism results from defects in pigment cells. It can affect just one cell or all of the cells. This means we can get a bird with just one odd white feather or lots of white feathers. We can even get a bird with all white feathers but normal colored eyes, beak and legs. This is still not an albino.

For more reading on color aberrations in birds you can download the excellent journal article, Not Every White Bird is an Albino: Sense and Nonsense About Color Aberrations in Birds by Hein van Grouw .

~Kirk

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