A quick first glance might leave you to think that this white crane is a whooping crane. However, it is not a whooping crane but a sandhill crane with an abnormality called leucism. Leucism is an abnormal condition of reduced pigmentation affecting various animals (such as birds, mammals, and reptiles) that is marked by overall pale color or patches of reduced coloring and is caused by a genetic mutation which inhibits melanin and other pigments from being deposited in feathers, hair, or skin.
This rare white-as-snow sandhill crane was spotted Saturday morning in a group of several hundred gray cranes eating in a cornfield west of Fort Kearny State Historical Park.
Read more about this leucistic sandhill crane here.
***** FOTWW’s mission is to help preserve and protect the Aransas/Wood Buffalo
population of wild whooping cranes and their habitat. *****
Friends of the Wild Whoopers is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.
