Blonde bombshell
Text and photo: Dave Waddington. Article from the September 2013 issue of Africa Geographic Magazine.
We were doing a game count near Xaranna Lodge in the Okavango Delta, Botswana when we caught sight of this pale bird, which we identified as a striped kingfisher.
It was a very exciting find, especially as I am not aware of a leucistic form of this species having been recorded.
Science editor Tim Jackson comments: This is a kingfisher you won’t find in any of the bird guides – at least not in such a flaxen-feathered form. It suffers from a genetic mutation that prevents the pigment melanin from being deposited normally in its feathers. The red beak and dark eye show that other parts of its anatomy are not affected in the same way. Known as leucism, this condition is quite rare; in North America, it affects roughly one in every 40 000 birds.
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