A "white" hawk

Photo: Kathy Mock

One can only imagine Kathy Mock's surprise when she glanced out the window of her Akron home, and saw a snow-white raptor winging by. In this winter/spring especially, thoughts of Snowy Owl would come right to mind.

Photo: Kathy Mock

Kathy was laboring at the computer when she caught a glimpse of this thing cruising by about two blocks away. She didn't tarry, rushing to grab optics and camera, and took off outside to track the ivory bird down. That she did, and obtained these distant but nice images.

Snow White turns out to be a gorgeous, highly leucistic Red-tailed Hawk. Vestiges of red tail feathers can be seen bleeding through, as can some dark pigment under the wings. This bird would make even a nonbirder whirl around and do a double-take.

Leucism is a pigment anomaly that causes normally dark pigments to become washed out and pale. I've written about this condition in more detail in other posts, such as HERE, and HERE.

Thanks to Kathy for sharing her interesting find!