Monday, January 11, 2021

Interesting Chickadee

Design - "Just a Little Snowman"
Designer - Ruth Sparrow / Twisted Threads
Chart - 2003 Ornament Issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine
Fabric - 30 count Hog Wild Blue R & R linen
Started - 29 November 2009
Completed - 17 December 2009
   
Black-capped Chickadees are one of the birds I see on a daily basis.

You can see why they got their name.

They hang out in the backyard.

And are pretty distinctive looking with the black cap atop their head.

So that's why I got pretty excited when I saw this guy.

I thought he might be a Mountain Chickadee.

But when other birders weighed in, they felt that it was a leucistic Black-capped Chickadee.
Leucism (/ˈluːsɪzəm, -kɪz-/) is a wide variety of conditions which result in the partial loss of pigmentation in an animal—which causes white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticles. ** Wikipedia **

Almost everyone I know has seen a leucistic American Robin.
*** Photo from Audubon with article. *** 

3 comments:

Barb said...

Very interesting! My neighbor saw a bird that undoubtedly had this condition. I will show her this info.

Christine said...

I have to say that I have never been that into stitching snowmen but seeing your picture collage in your heading is definitely changing my mind! Well done!

Robin in Virginia said...

Love your little snowman stitch, Beth! Thank you for the sharing of what leucism meant; I don't think I have seen a Robin look like that.