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We see this lone bird with a group of sparrows that come to our feeder in our yard at work.  She? He? is only seen with the sparrows.Our Sparrows like our big metal bins and hang out in the empties.  He has joined the sparrow flock.

We are in Santa Rosa California North of San Francisco.  The markings beside the white wings are very sparrow like same brown on brown bands.  The second picture clearly shows this. She came as the weather turned cooler with  bunch of other sparows.  She did not summer here with our sparrows.  Sparrows and Towhees are pretty much the only birds we get at our dish on the ground.  I have had bird feeders for years and I have never seen this one before.  Thanks!

Unless I am missing something, this looks like a partly leucistic female house sparrow.

ya thats a house sparrow

Yep, leucistic/partial albino, whichever you want to say (it depends on who you are) House Sparrow.

 

 

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featherbrain

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That bird's sister hangs out at my house. 

The sparrow with the white on it threw me for a loop as well, in fact that bird was the reason I signed up here.

featherbrain:

Yep, leucistic/partial albino, whichever you want to say (it depends on who you are) House Sparrow

I agree on the identification of the bird, but if you really want to be technical and scientific, this bird would be partially leucistic.  In fact, there is no such thing as partial albinism, because "albino" is used specifically for organisms entirely lacking pigment, and this House Sparrow obviously has some "normal" coloring still on her.

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tim.birdboy:

featherbrain:

Yep, leucistic/partial albino, whichever you want to say (it depends on who you are) House Sparrow

I agree on the identification of the bird, but if you really want to be technical and scientific, this bird would be partially leucistic.  In fact, there is no such thing as partial albinism, because "albino" is used specifically for organisms entirely lacking pigment, and this House Sparrow obviously has some "normal" coloring still on her.

Acutally, I just read this gigantic article on understanding abherrant plumages of birds in the ABA magazine Birding, and they said there is really no correct term for this because it really depends on who you are, some people prefer albino, some prefer leucistic, some prefer amelanistic etc. etc.

 

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featherbrain

Try out my photo quiz!

Life is simple: Eat, Sleep, and BIRD!

"Walk softly and carry a big scope!"

I'm down the road from you in Benicia. We also have a leucistic house sparrow that frequents our feeder.