Leucistic Black-chinned Hummingbird-©RobinZurovec
This white hummingbird was found this week at the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands & World Birding Center, one of the fabulous South Texas birding and nature centers that I featured in a blog here a few months ago. A very talented photographer, Robin Zurovec, captured these fantastic photos of the hummer and graciously allowed me to share them with everyone here. I think she did a great job of capturing these hummer in flight, which is challenging for all who photograph hummingbirds.
Leucistic Black-chinned Hummingbird-©RobinZurovec
This hummer is feeding on a blossom on a Turk’s Cap, which is a shrub native to Texas. The Edinburg Scenic Wetlands has 3.5 acres of native butterfly habitat including these Turk’s Caps–native flowers are excellent for attracting not only hummingbirds and butterflies but also many other species of birds.
Leucistic Black-chinned Hummingbird-©RobinZurovec
This gorgeous hummer was first photographed by Mati Lopez, a local lady who posts a lot of birds she photographs at the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands on their facebook page. It didn’t take long for hummer-lovers from around the area to flock to this great nature site to see and get their own photographs of this white beauty.
Leucistic Black-chinned Hummingbird-©RobinZurovec
Though this hummer is mostly white, if you look closely you can see that it does have some color in some of it’s feathers plus it has dark eyes, feet and legs. Albino birds have red/pink eyes, bill, legs and feet. This is a leucistic bird, which the Cornell Lab of Ornithology states is an “abnormal deposition of melanin.” [Corrected text] This bird has been identified as a leucistic Black-chinned Hummingbird by hummingbird bander and expert Bob Sargent after it was originally identified as a Buff-bellied Hummingbird. According to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Hotline, Bob Sargent noted that this hummer is “an immature just out of the nest, as the white feathers are not worn.”
Leucistic and albino hummingbirds are both very uncommon. I was delighted to view and photograph a partial albino hummingbird here in Colorado and I posted about it here on this blog last fall.
Have you ever seen a white hummer?
If you have photographed a white hummer, either leucistic or albino, if you have it posted on a facebook page or website you can share the link here so others can enjoy it (just type in the link with a information about it below).
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I have never seen a white hummingbird , but I have seen a gold one and was very shocked ,,it flew right at me so I immediately went and prepared to fill the feeders . I never saw it again and wondered if I were dreaming
Dona
Hi Dona-your gold hummer may have been a Rufous Hummingbird–they are a rufous color that looks gold especially when the sun hits it.
How Awesome! We have many different hummers in our area(Suffolk, VA), but have never seen a white one! They are all so amazingly beautiful! We have had our feeders out since March, and have been seeing them come to feed every day since!
SeEtta,
Thank you so much for this wonderful write-up and getting this story out there. We are very luck that Mati visits our site almost daily and photographs the wildlife of our grounds, as she has been able to document species that we often miss. And thanks to Robin Zurovec for sharing those lovely photos! What a great week at the EWBC!
Marisa-you are most welcome. The Edinburg Scenic Wetlands and World Birding Center is such a great place to visit not just for more experienced birders but for those just starting out. I certainly enjoy not only observing birds there but also the many butterflies that come to your native butterfly garden plants. I agree that you are very fortunate to have Mati visiting your site so frequently and posting her photos on your Edinburg SWWBC facebook site. And it was very nice of Robin Zurovec to let me use her photos so the many readers here could enjoy them as well as all the Birds & Blooms Magazine’s facebook fans–more than 700 of those fans shared the post and almost 1,500 added their ‘like’ to it.
What a beautiful white Hummer. Never saw a white one. Have not had any luck this year seeing hummers in Florida. It may have gotten too hot too early.
Simply gorgeous! My niece posted your photo on Facebook for me.
Thank you.
M DeCicco
New Paltz, NY
Hi Margie-You are welcome. I am glad you enjoyed this beauty.