A resident of Tuscawaras Township, Stark County, NW of Massillon, has reported to me the presence there of a leucistic (almost entirely white) red-tailed hawk. He has taken and sent to me a number of definitive photos of the bird, along with its normally-plumaged mate sitting in a nearby branch. As a raptor biologist (and licensed master falconer), I am familiar with white red-tails. While at BGSU in 1970, I discovered a female white red-tail that was mated to a normal tiercel. I followed it's reproductive year and watched it raise and fledge a normal male eyass. With proper collecting permits, I live-trapped the bird because it had become the target of local poachers. It was kept for two molts at BGSU before being later released in a wild area of Nevada, where presumably it was less likely to be shot. Albino and leucistic red-tails are seen each year at migration concentration points such as Hawk Mountain, Cape May, and the others. Albinism is somewhat frequent in red-tails. There are two forms of white-feathered red-tails, authentic albinos (much rarer) that have no pigmentation in any surface body part. They retain pale yellow eyes even into adulthood (if they live that long -- most don't). The second form is the so-called "leucistic" morph, which retains some pigmentation. Most leucistic red-tails have variably colored tails or primaries, with an over-all un-pigmented white coloration. Interestingly, we discovered with the Bowling Green bird (trapped in Sandusky County near Fremont) that the moderate pigmentation in the tail and a few other larger feathers varied after each molt. One year, several tail feathers had angled broad stripes of red across the otherwise white tail feathers. Then, in the next year, the tail was almost entirely white. This, I think, indicates that the lack of pigmentation is not entirely gene-driven, that perhaps other factors are at play, perhaps not unlike humans gaining white hair or baldness with age. Curiously, the reporter of the bird in Stark County says that the bird is uncommonly wary and easily spooked from perches, more so than typical red-tails. That was exactly the case with the Sandusky County bird I trapped 37 years ago. In the 70s and 80s I road-trapped and banded several dozen red-tails. None of them ever approached the wariness of the white bird. Therefore, hawkwatchers NW of Massillon should be on the lookout for what appeared to me to be a gorgeous white gyrfalcon sitting in a distant tree. The size will be right, the species wrong. One last comment. The bird is obviously mated and a nest has been discovered. The local resident who reported all of this to me will be attentive in not disturbing the nest site or local nest territory until at least mid-May, when any eyass(es) will be out of danger from humans passing beneath. Although white red-tails are seen each year in migration, the biology of their successful mating, copulation, egg-laying, hatching, and fledging is essentially unknown. Therefore, please do not attempt to leave any public road and trek across private land to search for this bird or its nest. Let's let it breed and see if any eyass is normally colored. No, this is not a new or rare species. It is, however, one of the rarest occasions when a white red-tail is known to have pair-bonded and will almost surely lay eggs. The biology of all of this is most interesting, inasmuch as the red tail color has often been thought essential for proper pair bonding and mate recognition. For the 1970 Sandusky County pair, that wasn't the case. Let's see how this pair turns out. (From the photos of the pair, it appears that the white bird is the larger female.) --John A. Blakeman Huron, Ohio 44839 [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask]) <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]