Birders, As a known "hummingbird guy", this particular email has been sent to me probably 50 times already (and another hundred will probably forward it to me in the next 6 months :-). One statement is not quite true. It says that albino hummingbirds are almost never photographed. On average, I receive photos of 2-5 albino Ruby-throats every year. One in Michigan this past fall. A couple dozen albino Ruby-throats have been banded, and all have been juveniles which is why these birds seem to appear in August or September. None has ever returned as an adult, which tells you what the fate of these beauties is likely to be. Their flight feathers may not be strong enough to complete a migration as they lack melanin for strength, and of course they're probably easier for predators to locate. Oddly, most also seem to be females; perhaps the gene for albinism in hummingbirds is sex-specific, like color blindness or baldness in humans? They are impressive. They are rare (though not as rare as albinos of some other species). But they seem to be photographed quite a lot! -- Allen T. Chartier Inkster, Michigan Email: [log in to unmask] Website: www.amazilia.net Blog: http://mihummingbirdguy.blogspot.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]