snailkites:ramseyringnecks:snailkites:typhlonectes:A leucistic female Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis
snailkites:ramseyringnecks:snailkites:typhlonectes:A leucistic female Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), Clinton-Como Park, Columbus, OH, USAphotographs by Paul Hurtado | FlickrNotice that this bird still has red tips. That’s because those colors are due to carotenoid pigments, not melanin, and aren’t affected by leucism!If this bird were leucistic, it would still have all of its red pigment.This is pibaldism.Female cardinals only express carotenoids in the wings and crest in the pattern we see in this bird. So it does have a normal level of red pigmentation. Piebald is a subcategory of leucism usually used in reference to animals that show patches of normal pigmentation in addition to dilute or white patches. I guess you could call this bird piebald, but it’s still leucistic. -- source link