Leucistic Black. Corvus corone, Crow, and Sweet William, Dianthus barbatus, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ten days ago or so I posted a photo of the young Crow whom I'd cawingly befriended in a very rainy and chilly Botanical Garden (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/27203675144/in/datepos...) In its young feathers I'd already seen some glimmerings of white (if you look carefully at the tail in that photo you'll be able to see them yourself). Crow is still always there when I do my frequent perambulations, and we caw a bit together; meaningless prattle like that of many visitors to the Garden...
Today in a spot of Sun, I saw that the White had grown out to a Single Bright Feather, unblacking Crow. I caught it voraciously pecking away at the small stand of Sweet William, Dianthus barbatus (it's right behind the inset in the photo of one of its clusters). I didn't think Crows have an appetite for flowers, and looking carefully I saw it discerningly eating small insects and insect larvae (among which those of Ladybirds).
Crow's White, by the way, is a manifestation of Leucism, a kind of cousin of Albinism from which you can distinguish it by examining e.g. an eye. My Crow's Eye was as black as they come...
Leucistic Black. Corvus corone, Crow, and Sweet William, Dianthus barbatus, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ten days ago or so I posted a photo of the young Crow whom I'd cawingly befriended in a very rainy and chilly Botanical Garden (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/27203675144/in/datepos...) In its young feathers I'd already seen some glimmerings of white (if you look carefully at the tail in that photo you'll be able to see them yourself). Crow is still always there when I do my frequent perambulations, and we caw a bit together; meaningless prattle like that of many visitors to the Garden...
Today in a spot of Sun, I saw that the White had grown out to a Single Bright Feather, unblacking Crow. I caught it voraciously pecking away at the small stand of Sweet William, Dianthus barbatus (it's right behind the inset in the photo of one of its clusters). I didn't think Crows have an appetite for flowers, and looking carefully I saw it discerningly eating small insects and insect larvae (among which those of Ladybirds).
Crow's White, by the way, is a manifestation of Leucism, a kind of cousin of Albinism from which you can distinguish it by examining e.g. an eye. My Crow's Eye was as black as they come...