Northland snapper catches a glimpse of a rare white fantail
Monday, 22 May 2017
Fantails are one of the most common - and most acrobatic - native birds.
A photographer in Whangarei who spotted a white fantail/piwakawaka sent the photograph to Forest & Bird, who posted it on their Facebook page.
It was initially described as 'albino', but Forest & Bird spokeswoman Megan Hubscher said it was more likely a pigmentation condition known as leucism.
Identifying birds with white plumage, or partly white plumage, often confuses albinism with other conditions, such as leucism. An all-white bird is not necessarily an albino.
**READ MORE:
* Environment Southland 'bloody useless'
An albino has a total lack of melanin, the pigment that gives skin, hair, and eyes their colour. Its opposite is melanism.
Leucism is a partial lack of pigmentation, which leads to white patches in plumage. A bird with the condition can appear albino at first glance.
'Eye, bill, leg, and foot colour remain unaffected.
'Albino birds have a total lack melanin, not only in their feathers, but also in their eyes, bill, legs and feet. Thus, their feathers are pure white and their eyes, bill, legs, and feet are red or pink,' according to Landcare Research.
Hubscher said it was 'not unheard of' to spot birds with genetic variations but, she said, there would be many more fantails in our towns and cities if predators were better managed.
With winter approaching, it was a good time to remind people to maintain their rat traps, she said.
'[The white fantail] doesn't have pink eyes. That's a naturally occurring genetic variation. It's not uncommon but it's not unheard of either.'
There were examples of other native birds with the condition, she said.
Fantails are fast breeders and they have short lifespans, which explains why they are common sights in our gardens, parks, and the back country.
Hubscher said the species - and other native fauna - would be much more abundant if there were not so many predators such as rats, cats, and stoats.
She said white birds could be easier for predators to spot, making them even more vulnerable than other members of a species without genetic variations.
'Fantails would be far more common if not for introduced predators. The reason we see them a lot is they breed and nest a lot.'
The photograph was taken recently in an urban reserve in Whangarei.
Fantails are distributed throughout New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands.
The Department of Conservation say there are 10 sub-species of fantail, and three species live in New Zealand - the North Island fantail, the South Island fantail and the Chatham Islands fantail.
The species is also common in Australia and the Pacific region. The oldest recorded specimen in New Zealand was three and, during a breeding season, fantail pairs remain together.
A prolific breeding species, fantail populations can be sustained despite predation but they are still vulnerable.
Conservationists often track fantails to give an indication of predatory effects on other, less visible, native species.