anonymous_ebirder's Favorites

melanistic

interesting article from the Wilson Bulletin from 1965 about a melanistic Pileated Woodpecker at Okefenokee in 1917:
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v077n04/p0404-p0405.pdf

This black thrasher was among normally-colored thrashers at a residence. The previous day, a thrasher got into the flue pipe of a wood stove at a residence in this area, where it remained trapped in the sooty pipe for at least several hours. We managed to coax it out through the wood stove and it flew out through the open back door and disappeared. @raystuart detected this "melanistic" individual the next morning and I got some shots of it. Seemed in good shape despite its sooty condition.

I wonder how many reported cases of melanism in wildlife might be attributed to similar circumstances?

I couldn't ID this bird (it looks very much like a Ruddy Duck in all ways but color), and so I posted it to the slocobirding group message board and Tom Edell explained that it is a melanistic Ruddy Duck. (Thanks, Tom!)