When we ask, “Can a blackbird turn completely white?” it’s not a meaningful, rhetorical question that you can’t answer. We’re legit, straight up asking “Is it ACTUALLY possible for a blackbird to turn white all over?” Apparently yes, because that actually happened.
An unusual blackbird in Nottinghamshire, UK, has turned completely white. Bird watchers have watched it shed its black feathers for a while as it flew around the Rufford Abbey Country Park. But those same enthusiastic bird watchers have noticed that he’s now white all over.
How?????
The bird is leucistic, which is a genetic mutation that prevents its feathers from being deposited with normal pigments, causing it to be white. But, most leucistic animals have something breaking up their whiteness, like colour patches throughout their feathers, making this all-white bird especially rare.
He’s basically the X-Men mutant of the bird world.
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