The plant pathology professor from Purdue University was kind enough to send me an opinion on the white grass plant. This is what he said: "This looks like it might be the "white leaf" disease of bermudagrass ��"which also may occur on Poa species as well as bentgrass. It is pretty rare and is thought to be caused by a "phytoplasma" which is sort of a primitive bacterium. The consensus is that you cannot do anything about it--and that the white plants will eventually succumb to competition by healthy, vigorous, green neighboring plants. Transmission from plant to plant via mowing is a possibility, however, I think it is very inefficient. Not much is known about the disease. However, based on some images of field trials in Asia, either some cultivars are very sensitive to infection, or the pathogen is transmitted with seed. I suggest observing the infected areas over time. The symptomatic plants should not be able to compete and survive very long. If the disease appears to be spreading you may need to take some action to eradicate the symptomatic plants (if possible)."

"I ahve to say you ladies are REALLY good, maybe we should skip to the first fall warblers???? " Ladies, we are in trouble. Check your Peterson guide on confusing fall warblers to bone up for the challenge! Actually the guide is pretty good by putting them in sub-sections by field marks and color. You can then proceed by process of elimination until you get down to the correct bird. Then check the Cornell's site for other photographs for further positive ID markers. Local variations and light in the photos make if tougher too but if you find most of key ID points it is probably that bird. According to my SMAS group the Blue Jay is considered partially leucistic, not albino, and is exhibiting other feather abnormalities related to genetics. In another communication, Arlene Ripley commented that she has seen many albino birds but none have exhibited the fur-like structures of this Jay's feathers. I did some of my own research on fur-like feathers and every site pointed to something called proto-feathers which were exhibited by some early dinosaurs before true feathers emerged. It's exciting to imagine this bird may be exhibiting an ancient genetic throwback to prehistoric times which upholds the common belief that birds evolved from dinosaurs as they first took flight. There has been a call to ask everyone on the local site if there is a scientic name for this feather anomaly and this call comes from a man that works for the Smithsonian Institute and really knows birds. So far, no reponse, so the local bird community here may be stumped. There was sentiment regarding hope the bird survives. Jean, has this bird been a regular at your feeder for any length of time in which one could make the assumption it has survived nature with this variance? Arlene suggested the photo be posted on websites dedicated to leucistic and albino birds and see if more information could be obtained from readers. PapaSmurf is a rare Blue Jay indeed. CT

Dydee - Welcome to Gardenweb! Congrats on getting the photos. It's unusual to see an albino bird, much less photograph it. There are some interesting photos if you look on Google's images feature. There's an albino peacock that's beautiful. If you're wanting to learn how to post photos, you can find lots of helpful info by searching on gardenweb. A lot of people use Photobucket.

Thanks everyone for your posts. It's so interesting to see what other people are seeing in different locations. :-) I've seen several albino and leucistic birds in the West Desert of Utah in the last few years. It's funny this thread started, because my BF and I were just commenting on the fact that we seem to see a large number of these birds - compared to other areas of the country I have lived. The best (to me) was a White Raven. After it fledged, I never saw it again. We routinely see leucistic Eurasian Collared Doves with various amounts of white. And last summer we had a white House Sparrow for many months. We also have various colors of House Finch - from the normal red to other shades of orange and yellow. I have been birding for 30+ years, but I'll only comment on these ones I've seen in the last 4-5 years in Utah. It's always fun seeing something a little different :-) Candy This post was edited by zaffisc on Tue, Feb 26, 13 at 13:15