[Tweeters] Depigmented (albino/leucistic) alcid in Puget Sound - a magnificent white bird!!

[Raphael Fennimore]

To All Who Tweet,

“Call me Ishmael”, I guess - wow!

On November 7th I saw an astounding **white alcid** fly in from the north with 5 or 6 Rhinoceros Auklets and land off of Discovery Park in Seattle! The bird was amazing - it was entirely white and creamy/tan off-white with no dark coloration on it anywhere that I could see when in flight and when it was on the water. I thought I saw that its bill was large and light as well, and my first thought had been that maybe it was a Tufted Puffin (insane as that sounds), but I did notice that the bird was the same size as the Rhinos it flew with - it was not substantially larger or smaller than them and I concluded that it was probably a Rhino.

I reached for my camera but never saw this bird again - it either dove or flew, perhaps continuing south. I entered it as an ‘alcid sp.’ on my checklist and I messaged the King County Birding Chat group about it but figured that it was just ‘one that got away’. Yesterday morning, however, on Nov. 12th, Timothy Leque spotted and distantly photographed a white alcid off of Boston Harbor in Thurston County! He believes the bird to have been a Rhinoceros Auklet and it sounds like he got much longer views than I had. Considering the rarity of such dramatic depigmentation in alcids, I would think that the Thurston County bird is the same one that I saw from Discovery Park.

Big thanks to Liam Hutcheson for noting both sightings and for looping me into the Thurston/Mason RBA yesterday. Here are links to my checklist with the ‘alcid sp.’ and to Timothy Leque’s checklist with his distant photos.

My list:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S154086658

Timothy Leque’s list:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S154320629

I really hope that good photos of it can be taken because it really is quite something to see! ‘Heads up’ to all Puget Sound or Salish Sea seawatchers, and good birding!

Raphael
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