\u201cIt was a beautiful white, it was almost snowy white with a little bit of grey flecks through it,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hanging around with the other t\u016b\u012b, but it was as if they weren\u2019t friends … I felt quite sorry for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She thought her apricot tree laden with fruit and flax bushes attracted the birds to her property.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt did hang around initially on the flax further up, but it got more and more brave and came in and started enjoying the apricots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen said the bird stayed around her property for five to six days but hasn\u2019t been sighted since, which she attributed to the lack of apricots on her trees.<\/p>\n
Department of Conservation (DoC) senior technical advisor (fauna) Rhys Burns said there were a couple of reasons why a t\u016b\u012b could appear white, including genetic conditions albinism or leucism.<\/p>\n
Ali Allen said the bird was often on its own despite other regular coloured t\u016b\u012b feeding nearby. Photo \/ Ali Allen. <\/p>\n
He said leucism was defined as a full or partial loss of pigment cells in the plumage only. <\/p>\n
\u201cBirds with leucism have white or a proportion of white feathers but their eyes, beaks and other parts are unaffected.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the image provided, the t\u016b\u012b appears to be a juvenile and leucistic; parts of the bird are still black in colour, and the legs and eyes are not pink.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burns said the bird\u2019s colours won\u2019t change as it ages, as leucism was an inherited absence of feather pigment cells.<\/p>\n
Albinism on the other hand causes a complete lack of the pigment melanin in all cells, including skin, feathers and eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlbinistic birds have red or pink, and very pale beaks, feathers and skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burns said lightly coloured birds like these are likely to have a lower survival rate, which adds to their rarity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are more visible to predators and generally achieve a lower breeding success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burns asked anyone who spots a white t\u016b\u012b or any other unusually coloured birds to contact DoC\u2019s non-emergency line on 0800 ASK DOC (0800 275 362<\/a>), or email info@doc.govt.nz<\/a> to let the department know. <\/p>\n Burns said learning more about protected species helps us understand how we can protect them better.<\/p>\n Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was a beautiful white, it was almost snowy white with a little bit of grey flecks through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1561,35875,141443,104650,1976,29529,101,3180,111,43,139,69,8205,1527,59684,9636,37147,9880,141442,16550,1533,1354],"class_list":["post-240310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bay","tag-bird","tag-delighted","tag-delights","tag-hawkes","tag-hoping","tag-left","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rare","tag-return","tag-sighting","tag-spotted","tag-t","tag-view","tag-watcher","tag-white","tag-will","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}