The most extreme plumage variation? (2 Viewers)

[MJB]

The attached digiscoped image, taken in a strong wind, is of the most extreme plumage I've encountered in a Common Buzzard. Visible in the image, and very prominent when viewed through the scope, was its blue-grey crown. The photo was taken from the Seeufergasse track, 3km west of Apetlon in the Neusiedlersee/Ferto National Park near the Austria/Hungary border.

I wondered if others have images of extreme plumage variation for this and other species?

 

[Farnboro John]

How about this one? Dorset, 7 March 2015 at Wyke Down. We had gone there hoping for Hen Harrier: this Buzzard kept flitting in and out of sight and every time it did someone called it as a Hen Harrier because of the white rump. We ended up not believing there even was a Hen Harrier (NB I'm not actually saying there wasn't at some point!). In the field, it actually seemed to have a grey cast to the mantle and a blue-grey crown, just as you describe.

John

 

[jalid]

Juvenile Honey-buzzards are nice. These two are both from mid-September, southern Finland

 

[Nutcracker]

I wondered if others have images of extreme plumage variation for this and other species?

Not got any pics, but I've seen Common Buzzard whiter than that in Denmark - not quite albino, but not far off.

 

[Scridifer]

Taken near Nos Emona Bulgaria 9th April this year:

Chris

 

[Farnboro John]

Not got any pics, but I've seen Common Buzzard whiter than that in Denmark - not quite albino, but not far off.

I have in Scotland, too: on the Farr road North from the Findhorn valley. My non-birder brother reported a white BOP as big as a Buzzard and the subsequent drive was interesting.

But it was just a white Buzzard. I'd forgotten it till you mentioned yours.

John

 

[MJB]

How about this one? Dorset, 7 March 2015 at Wyke Down. We had gone there hoping for Hen Harrier: this Buzzard kept flitting in and out of sight and every time it did someone called it as a Hen Harrier because of the white rump. We ended up not believing there even was a Hen Harrier (NB I'm not actually saying there wasn't at some point!). In the field, it actually seemed to have a grey cast to the mantle and a blue-grey crown, just as you describe. John

John,
I omitted to mention the undertail, which I failed to capture on more than 30 images, was a single faint broadish bar, forward of which were many very fine, faint bars.
MJB

 

[jurek]

The whitest Buzzard I remember looked almost white when perching. It had some brown streaks on its breast, on scapulars, normal greater coverts, flight feathers and tail. The rest was white. There was a second similar bird around, I think they were brood-mates.

 

[Xenospiza]

Can still be whiter: http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=2261
I once had a local buzzard which was quite uniform with rather long pointed wings: now that one was scary!

 

[Nutcracker]

Can still be whiter: http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=2261

That's like the one I saw in Denmark :t: different part of the country though (mine was somewhere west of Odense, seen from train)

 

[MJB]

Can still be whiter: http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=2261
I once had a local buzzard which was quite uniform with rather long pointed wings: now that one was scary!

Here's a challenge for the biologists: are white feathers in pale morphs physically longer because of the absence of melanin? (I assume that the word 'melanistic'implies that more melanin is present in dark feathers...).
MJB

 

[stevethehydra]

Wow, an amazing gallery of leucistic (and otherwise abnormally plumaged) birds at that site!

Here's another extremely white Common Buzzard: http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=49653
and this one, which also has white claws: http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=52405

and a Honey Buzzard that looks remarkably like a Glaucous/Iceland Gull! http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=50554

While Buteo buteo has to be one of the most variably plumaged (non-domesticated) bird species in the world (B. jamaicensis being perhaps the other main contender), I can't help wondering with some of the very unusually plumaged ones in Western Europe if hybridisation with escaped individuals of non-European Buteo species kept by falconers might be involved...

 

[Nutcracker]

Can still be whiter: http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=2261

....
and this one, which also has white claws: http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=52405

Same individual, nicknamed 'Ino', around Gevninge near Roskilde, for at least 9 years

 

[njlarsen]

Pale Buteo buteo have been discussed before. One conclusion was that the proportion of the population displaying this increased as one moves further east and north from Denmark -- if I recall correctly, about 7% in Skåne (S Sweden).

Niels