Why we called them "American robins" is beyond me. The first European blackbird I saw in London's Hyde Park reminded me instantly of the bird we call the robin, just all black. The behavior was exactly the same.
Both are true thrushes in the genus Turdus and are no relation to the actual robin, which is an Old World fly-catcher.
DALE DRINNON WRITES Re: Teratology, I had reported sighting a partially-albino crow on one of my birding jaunts a while back. It had a mostly-white head. That would probably have been in winter.
These photographs were taken in Northam, North Devon by Matt Osborne on his camera phone..
Albinism and partial albinism is not uncommon in the blackbird's close relative the American robin.
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Why we called them "American robins" is beyond me. The first European blackbird I saw in London's Hyde Park reminded me instantly of the bird we call the robin, just all black. The behavior was exactly the same.
Both are true thrushes in the genus Turdus and are no relation to the actual robin, which is an Old World fly-catcher.
DALE DRINNON WRITES Re: Teratology, I had reported sighting a partially-albino crow on one of my birding jaunts a while back. It had a mostly-white head. That would probably have been in winter.
ReplyDeleteI found a report of white (leucistic) carrion crow in Cumbria.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/kendall-crow009.html#cr
I've never seen any unusual coloration in the corvids I'm familiar with-- blue jays, fish crows, American crows, and common ravens.
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