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Leucism and Leucistic Birds & Animals & other Colour Variations
01/04/2008 16:52:40
Leucism (or Leukism)
Leucism is a very unusual condition whereby the pigmentation cells in an animal or bird fail to develop properly. This can result in unusual white patches appearing on the animal, or, more rarely, completely white creatures.
 Albinism is a different condition. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is that in albinism the eyes are usually pink or red, and albinism affects the entire animal, not just patches.
This occasionaly causes very excited biologists to think they have discovered a new species, when in fact leucism is the cause of the unusual markings they have seen.
Xanthochroism
Birds can show this condition in one of two ways: either there is an excess of yellow in the plumage or the yellow replaces another colour (in this instance the red). The condition has been reported in a number of species, including other species of woodpecker (in North America), and in many instances the colour replaced is red.
White giraffe seen in Botswana. Send us your photos of any leucistic, albino, melanistic, xanthocristic or erythrisctic animals or birds and we will add them to gallery.albino crow in india? Wildlife Extra is not sure if this bird is an albino, or leucistic (or even a crow?). Albino creatures would normally have pink (or red) eyes, but this bird doesn't.
White crow in Satna, India | albino squirrels in yorkshire It is thought that there is a family of albino squirrels in Guisborough Forest in Yorkshire
Click Albino squirrels in Yorkshire for more
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Greater spotted woodpecker with Yellow vents This lovely image was taken in Cheshire, UK, by Sheila Blamire. The woodpecker has unusual colouring and is probably displaying Xanthochroism
Click Great spotted woodpecker with unusual colouring in Cheshire for more | Albino Killer whale?  Very unusual white orca photographed off Alaska.
More |
Migaloo, the albino Humpback whale Not seen for 2 years, Migaloo - bigger than a truck and iridescent white - made his annual migration north past Cairns unnoticed.
First seen in 1991, Migaloo is thought to be in his mid 20's. Read the full story » | Albino otter seen in Scotland A very unusual albintter has been seen, and photographed, in the north of Scotland.
Click here to see and read more about the albino otter |
White red kite at gigrin farm This unusual white Red kite is sometimes seen at the Gigrin Farm Red kite feeding station.
Click The white kite of Gigrin Farm
| Leucistic woodpecker in Massachusetts The Hairy woodpecker is widespread and common in North America.
Leucistic Hairy woodpecker in Massachusetts |
leucistic cory's shearwater 
Second record for the species.
Click Leucistic Cory's shearwater chick on the Madeira Archipelago for more | White giraffe in the Kruger
Another giraffe with very light colouration has been reported to us, this time from the Kruger in South Africa. White giraffe seen in the Kruger Park |
The 'Blonde' hedgehogs of Alderney The island of Alderney has an exceptionally high incidence of leucistic hedgehogs, with some 25% of the population being white!
Click Alderney's 'blonde' hedgehogs for more | White fallow deer in the forest of dean This white fallow buck was seen repeatedly in the Forest of Dean until recently, but hasn't been seen for a while (Moved on or shot perhaps?).
See more pictures |
White elk in utah
These te elk were seen in Utah, USA. Are they leucistic, or albino? White elk in Utah - Leucistic or albino? | White turkey in Texas This turkey was seen in Texas. Is it a leucistic Rio-Grande turkey, or an escaped domestic White Holland?
White turkey in Texas |
leucistic bald eagle in oregon This Bald eagle with unusual colouring was seen and photographed in southern Oregon.
Leucistic Bald eagle from Oregon | Leucistic Oystercatcher in Auckland
A leucistic variable oystercatcher seen in Auckland.
See more about the white oystercatcher |
Leucistic white tail deer Leucistic white tailed deer, seen in Maryland, USA.
Click Leucistic white-tailed deer in Maryland, USA to read more | Leucistic opossums  Two leucistic opossum from the USA.
White opossum in Oklahoma White opossum - Probably leucistic |
Albino fallow deer in Lincolnshire An albino fallow deer has been photographed in Lincolnshire.
Click Albino fallow deer spotted in Lincolnshire for more. | leucistic Chamois in Spain This Chamois, with unusual colouring, has been seen in Northern Spain.
Click Leucistic chamois photographed in Spain for more. |
Leucistic baboons of the Luangwa Valley. Another reader, Steve Tolan, of the Chipembele Wildlife Education Centre has also seen some leucistic baboons inthe Luangwa Valley. There does seem to be a "leucistic hotspot" in the Luangwa, as we have had several reports of different animals from the beautiful part of the world.
Read more » | Leucistic Elephant seals Despite the recent claim by the BBC that a white elephant seal seen in 2008 on Marion Island was the first confirmed sighting of a leucistic elephant seal, one of our readers, Nancy Spruance, has sent us a photo of a leucistic Elephant seal that she saw on Prion Island, off the northeast coast of South Georgia, way back in November 2003.
Read more » |
Albino Fallow deer spotted in Sussex
 Volunteer rescuers had a surprise when they went to rescue a deer that was caught in a rope swing in some Sussex woods. To their amazement the deer, a male fallow deer, was completely white and is thought to be a very rare albino.
Read the full story » | Leucistic crow in the lake district
This very unusual leucistic crow was spotted in a garden in Kendall. All white but with black beak, eyes and legs, it is a very striking bird. Read More |
'Golden' lion of South Luangwa July 2008. Egil Droge has sent us some images of a lion cub with very unusual colouring in the South Luangwa.
Click here to see more images. Golden lion seen again in 2009, more images here. | Leucistic Robin on London's Hampstead Heath This leucistic robin was seen for the first time a few days before Christmas. The almost all-white bird has a patch of red and some brown too but is mostly snowy white.
Details. |
leucustic zebra - Tanzania This photo was sent in by one of our readers; the zebra was seen in Tanzania.
See a larger image | White baboon, impala & Meve's starling One of our readers works in the Luangwa valley, and he has sent us images of a baboon, an impala and a starling with unusual colouration.
See the images |
Leucistic Ibis, Western scrub jay, western kingbird & American robin The following images were all taken by wildlife photographer Paul Higgins.
Click Leucistic Ibis, American robin, Western kingbird and Western scrub jay to see the images. | Twin leucistic moorhens in north west UK The same pond that provided a leucistic moorhen in 2007 has now provided 2 leucistic chicks in 2008, presumably from the same parents.
More |
More leucistic bird specimens | |
leucistic crow Leucistic crow - Keith Marshall. Click leucistic crow for more details. | white impala White 'leucistic' impala seen in South Africa.
Details and more images. |
albino tadpoles Very unusual batches of albino tadpoles found in welsh pond
More details. | albino ratfish A ghostly, mutant ratfish caught off Washington state.
Read more. |
'Snowball' the white baboon This white baboon, probably a leucistic animal, is currently living in South Africa.
More details and photos.
| Leucistic Deer Photographed in early 2008, this leucistic Red deer was seen in the west of Scotland. We have also heard reports of a leucistic deer in the East Midlands.
Read more.
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Leucistic jackdaws April 2008. We recived two reports with photos of leucistc jackdaws in different parts of the UK.
Images and details.
| Leucistic Moorhens In 2007 we received reports and photos of no less than four leucistic moorhens in the UK.
Details and photos.
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Leucistic squirrel
One of our readers sent us a few images of this white squirrel from the North West. Photos and details. | Leucistic Mistle Thrush
This leucistic thrush was seen and photographed in Worcestershire. More details. |
Leucistic buzzard
This white buzzard was seen in Austria early in 2008. More details | Woodpecker showing signs of 'xanthochroism.' A new one on me, but this diagnosis was sent to us by the BTO. This woodpecker was seen on birdfeeders in Yorkshire in 2007.
More details and photos.
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Erythrism
Interestingly in 2006 we were sent photos of an Erythristic badger. Erythrism is apparently a genetic defect that causes plumage/fur to become much more ginger/red than is usual. More details | Leucistic Fallow deer This fallow deer was seen in Scotland by reader Mark Roach.
Click for larger image. |
Albino dolphin off the USA This extremely rare and beautiful ‘pink dolphin' was first spotted in Louisiana.
Read more | White Bearded tit in Lancashire This unusual bird has been seen at the RSPB's Leighton Moss reserve.
Read more. |
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This unusual bird has been seen
Read the comments about this article and leave your own comment
We have a resident leucistic woodpecker that comes every day to our feeded in Hampden Massachusetts, I took some photos and would like to post one of them...
Posted by: Pierre Bessette | 19 Jun 2010 11:59:46 PM
I've just photographed a leucistic oystercatcher in Point Chevalier, Auckland, New Zealand. How do I post the photograph?
Posted by: Andrew Bogle | 13 Mar 2010 09:55:48 PM
How do I give you a photo of a leucistic sparrow that I took in my yard?
Fay Goldie
Posted by: Fay Goldie | 25 Jan 2010 01:11:16 AM