Not Actually For the Birds

K.S. Brooks / Silverado Express Newspaper

The Elusive and Ghostly Leucistic Red-Tailed Hawk of Arden

D.L. Kreft will not be making his regular appearance here this week in For the Birds. Word on the street is that he is busy hurriedly building his counter-turkey warfare moat and turret while they are reluctant to leave the shade of the trees due to the summer heat. Smooth move, Mr. Kreft. I want to be on his team when Turkeygeddon goes down.

Without the Big D around this month, that left me to ponder the universal questions of: How did the Famous Ghostly Red-Tailed Hawk of Arden become leucistic? Can a snow-white raptor find love? What the heck does leucistic even mean?

Let’s start with that last question. And just a little bit of friendly advice: Don’t ever mistakenly state that leucistic is “sort of albino” on Facebook. You will be harshly criticized by people with nothing better to do than look for ways to pick on people who are trying to simplify an explanation. That’s lesson number one.

Number two: Cornell University’s All About Birds site says, “Leucism is not a genetic mutation, but rather describes defects in pigment cells that are caused during development. This may result in full leucism, where there is a reduction in all types of pigment. An animal with full leucism will appear paler…