Amazing photographs of an albino Ruby-throated Hummingbird that has been visiting a yard in Staunton, Virginia, can be viewed here.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
I wonder why the gorget isn’t visible in any of those awesome pictures? I would have thought that as structural pigmentation, it shouldn’t be affected by albinism.
Perhaps it is a female?
That is certainly a nice, simple explanation! 🙂
I looked into this a bit more, and it seems like it could also possibly be a male. Apparently the physical structures in hummingbirds which cause the gorget coloration are themselves made out of melanin. So it seems like even a male albino hummingbird wouldn’t have a gorget flash.
This is fascinating.I doubt I will ever see one. So thank you so much. I found the information about the gorget especially interesting.