[Tweeters] Partially leucistic Horned Grebe

[John Riegsecker]

All,

Thursday, May 20, I photographed a partially leucistic Horned Grebe at 
Bear River MBR in Utah.  After returning home I did some internet 
research and thought I would share what I found.  Photos of the grebe 
are here:

https://skygardener.zenfolio.com/p835320935

I tried to present several angles, and in some photos there is a hint of 
the horns.

Birds of the World says that Leucistic Eared Grebe are not uncommon and 
have been found breeding.  That does not seem to be the case for Horned 
Grebe as not many show up in a Google image search.  For comparison to 
the one I photographed:

https://hamiltonnature.org/birding/birds/photos/three/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nsxbirder/27345913978/in/pool-47087339@N00

and these two which look more like Eared Grebe to me:

https://www.phillybirdnerd.net/2016/10/last-day-in-vegas.html

Finally, everything you want to know about aberrant Grebe plumage:

https://ps.mnhn.lu/ferrantia/publications/Ferrantia72.pdf

John Riegsecker Gig Harbor
jriegsecker at pobox.com
-- 
John Riegsecker