As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 23 June 2016

Has bird watcher finally captured rare albino blackbirds on camera?

17:40, 13 JUN 2016
UPDATED 17:40, 13 JUN 2016
BY PETE BAINBRIDGE , JOSH PEACHEY

Paul Gartley has spent a month trying to get footage of the birds

A bird watcher who spent a month trying to film an elusive species believes he has finally captured them on camera.

Paul Gartley says he repeatedly saw a group of albino blackbirds in the early morning as he walked his dog in Irlams o’ th’ Height, Salford , but wanted to gather some hard evidence.
Paul, 42, thinks he finally caught the birds on his mobile phone as he walked on Bolton Road playing fields.

He told M.E.N: “I only saw them very early, between 4am and 7am in the morning. They hang around with others and I read online that they only last about a month in the wild because they stick out to predators.

"They bounce off as soon as you get within 50 yards of them but two weeks ago I managed to get close in my car and watch them for a couple hours.”

Albinism is often genetically inherited, and is a recessive characteristic, leading to rare numbers and very few of them surviving in the wild.


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