OGUNQUIT, Maine — Like many people this summer, Heather and Gary Ross decided to vacation in Ogunquit. Unlike others, however, the California couple had quite an unusual wildlife experience while visiting the seaside town.
While sitting on the lawn of the Beachmere Inn on the afternoon of Sept. 24, they observed what appeared to be an albino hummingbird.
“We had gone to breakfast and came back,” Heather Ross said. “We were sitting in the grassy area in the afternoon. I’ve always been a fan of hummingbirds. Gary said ‘look at that’ and pointed out a white hummingbird.”
Heather Ross quickly snapped some pictures with the camera she had on her.
“We were watching it,” she said. “It was stunningly beautiful.”
The Ross’ uploaded the photos, Heather said, and when they looked at the pictures saw that the bird had red eyes.
“Gary said it was an albino,” Heather Ross said.
The Ross’ sent the photos to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and to the Beauty of Birds website to verify their conclusion that the bird was an albino.
Dr. Emma Grieg, an ornithologist in the Cornell Lab’s Project Feeder Watch program, said that she had looked at the Ross’ photos and believed the bird to be an albino.
“I saw the photos and, in my opinion, because of the reddish/pinkish eyes, it would appear to be albino,” she said.
Grieg drew a distinction between albino birds and birds with leucism, both of which can appear white or lacking color. Albinos have a genetic mutation that totally prevents the production of melanin. Birds with leucism lack a normal distribution of melanin and other pigmentation on feathers.
“It’s the absence of melanin in albinos,” Grieg said. “You have to look at the eyes. The lack of melanin results in the red eyes in albinos. You can have white birds with dark eyes.”
Grieg noted that the occurrence of albinism in hummingbirds is “quite rare, very uncommon,” but said she could not give a quantitative estimate of the frequency of appearance from the experience of the Feeder Watch program. That program involves about 20,000 people who voluntarily participate each year.
“They feed birds in their yards, count them, and report to Cornell,” Grieg said. “Sometimes they see birds that are unusual [but they are not always reported]. So, we can’t give a quantitative estimate on [the frequency of albinism].”
Ross’ photos of the birds are posted on the Beauty of Birds website, a state by state compilation of unusual bird sightings.
That hummingbird wasn’t the only spectacular sighting of the day for the Ross’. Heather said the couple had driven to Kennebunkport earlier to see Walker’s Point, the family compound of former President George H.W. Bush, and were lucky enough to see the elder Bush and his wife, Barbara, and get some photos.
“Then we came home and saw the hummingbird and said ‘we should buy a lottery ticket,’” Heather Ross said.