Rarely seen in Colorado, a "true" albino hummingbird was seen in the morning and again in the evening Sunday at the home of Judith Anne Smith and Jim Barrett on CR 104 in Salida.
Smith said she has never seen a bird of this type before.
"I have two feeders on my deck. I looked out, and there he was."
Sunday morning Smith was sitting at her kitchen table when she saw the bird in the piƱon trees beside her deck, she said. "It lit out on that piƱon. I could see his eyes."
Smith said she went in to get her camera and when she came back out the bird was still in the trees.
"I put my elbows on the rail to take a picture and I was just 10 feet from him," she said.
She saw the bird again later in the evening when it was drinking from one of her feeders. Smith had invited her neighbor, Helen Brieske, to come during the evening "feeding frenzy" to see if the bird returned, and Brieske took a photo when the albino returned to the yard.
Susan Tweit of Salida, local naturalist, said the bird is "extremely rare." She said people occasionally see birds that have partial albinism, but true albinos are "rather distinctive."
SeEtta Moss of CaƱon City, conservation chairwoman for Arkansas Valley Audubon Society, said, "Pure albino hummingbirds, like this one, are pure white with pinkish bill, feet and eyes as a result of having no melanin pigment in their skin, eyes or feathers."
Moss said there are also partial albino, or leucistic, hummingbirds that are more off-white with black bills, feet, and eyes because of the presence of some melanin.
Albinism comes from a "genetic defect that interferes with the formation of pigmentation," Moss said.
At Tweit's urging, a reporter from The Mountain Mail contacted Smith and suggested she report the sighting to the Audubon Society and Cornell University.
Tweit said spotting the bird was of "national interest" and would be used as a data point for researchers.
"They are very rare... . I know of only two other true albino hummingbirds that have been documented in Colorado," Moss said.
The Mountain Mail
