Midwest USA. December 2025.
Olympus E-M1+ Oly 75mm-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II @ 252, f/8, 1/80s, ISO-640.
Did I find an IRL shiny? Is this leucism? It’s rare that I see a chickadee with white feathers in its cap.
Midwest USA. December 2025.
Olympus E-M1+ Oly 75mm-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II @ 252, f/8, 1/80s, ISO-640.
Did I find an IRL shiny? Is this leucism? It’s rare that I see a chickadee with white feathers in its cap.
That’s a hybrid with a mountain chickadee I’m pretty sure!
Interesting. I didn’t think we had mountain chickadees here I’m way over East vs their typical range.
You probably don’t but bird ranges are expanding rapidly. Also from what I’ve been told by some experts, mountain chickadees will sometimes join a BCC gang and hang out with it even without being near their range. So maybe you got a hybrid that just traveled very far east. In any case it looks just like a hybrid to me!