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HELLO TO ALL: After much "engineer talk" and repeated measurements where the bird was perched in the photo, Allen and I came to the agreement the this bird is SIX INCHES LONG from tip of beak to end of top most (longest) tail feather. The measurements at the perch area were made perpendicular to the line of sight on the ceramic object with groves. Luck helped here, since the bird is also positioned perpendicular to our line of sight so that there is little or no distortion in our scaling a known length in the photo to the unknown length of the bird. This bird shows no damage to the tail feathers (or any others), which reduces the odds that it is an escaped cage bird. The image also shows that this bird is truly a near perfect albino. I have witnessed no rejection of this albino by the other birds, but I have seen severe rejection of an albino Barn Swallow by a mob of nearly 1000 normal Barn Swallows resting on the road at RMBS early on a Fall morning over ten years ago. Bird lengths given in various references can vary for several reasons. Some use the length as naturally posed in life versus the length of a mounted skin in a tray. Other length variations can be for different races of a species, and considering averages from many specimens versus extremes for a specific individual bird sighted. This bird with a nominal length of six inches, may narrow the identification choices. House Finches, Eurasian Tree Sparrows are both common in my yard and 6-inches long, as is the Purple Finch. The House Sparrow has a length of 6.25 inches and is less common in my yard. American Goldfinch has a much shorter length of 5-inches, and is also locally common. Other Western goldfinches, the Pine Siskin, and Redpolls are much smaller than this bird. I am not aware of any pure white species of Canaries, but anything is possible. If I were forced to guess what this bird is today, I would select albino House Finch. This is good enough for Hobby Work ! Maybe I was in the heat TOO LONG yesterday. PS: At 3:20 pm and at 5:30 pm on 8.11.2010, I saw the little "White Bird" again. ALWAYS HAVE FUN; GO BIRDING. Paul Bauer; Florissant, MO (St. Louis Co.) ________________________________ From: Al and Lois Smith <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Wed, August 11, 2010 10:36:03 AM Subject: Albino in Florissant Paul called late Sunday and said they had an albino bird at their feeders, Fran spotted it. It returned yesterday so I went over to try for some photos. Sat outside for four hours in the 100 degree heat, yuk, but it finally came in close enough for some photos. We have no idea what it is, maybe Goldfinch?, House Finch? or an Exotic escapee? Comment from another forum: "Probably a young House Sparrow. Whatever it is, it's a young bird not long out of the nest (note the swollen gape)." If it is relative young I doubt it's an escapee. Probably because of size it's a House Sparrow but there's also an active Eurasian Tree Sparrow nest with many young within 30 feet. This bird did feed on the ground with some HOSP in the vicinity. http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/965678761_HDPRL-XL.jpg http://www.photosbyat.com/photos/965653741_tRXQj-XL.jpg More photos in blog, link below. I needed some luck, Paul was changing lenses when it came in so he missed getting photos, luckily he got some good ones Sunday. I'll have to remind him of that next time we're waiting for a rare bird to come it. :) Al Smith Bridgeton, St. Louis County http://www.photosbyat.com http://MoBirds.smugmug.com (admin) Blog http://blog.photosbyat.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------ The Audubon Society of Missouri's Wild Bird Discussion Forum To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://po.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mobirds-l&A=1 ------------------------------------------------------------ The Audubon Society of Missouri's Wild Bird Discussion Forum To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://po.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mobirds-l&A=1