Rare white hummingbird spotted in Cameron County

Rickey Schwein, his wife Lynda and son Curt were sitting in the back yard of their home along the Arroyo Colorado last Saturday when something caught their attention.

One of the hummingbirds coming to their feeders was white.

"We had never seen anything like that and didn't know if anyone else had ever seen that," Schwein said.

Only a casual birder, Schwein wasn't certain how special his sighting was. He admits that he can only name about half the birds he sees.

He attempted to photograph it Saturday, but didn't have much luck. On Sunday morning, he managed to snap a few photos.

"We enjoy looking at birds, but we're not avid birders," he said. "When we first saw it, I didn't think much about it. It was just something I had never seen before - just a curiosity."

He told only a few people about the sighting.

Bird expert Mark Conway said the bird is probably a leucistic ruby-throated hummingbird, which are migrating south through the Rio Grande Valley. He added there's a slim possibility it could be a black-chinned hummingbird.

Conway said he's never seen a white hummingbird.

"What's unusual is that it's lived this long," Conway said. "Most of the critters like this are killed quickly."

There's no way to know how rare white hummingbird sightings are, but he said leucistic hummers are more common than true albinos.

"Leucistic is just its genetic structure; albinos don't have the genetic structure to produce pigment," he said.

Leucism is a "mutation in the bird's genetic structure that programs it to be a certain color," Conway said. "Sometimes the mutation can cause the color to not be fully expressed."

The easiest way to differentiate a leucistic hummer from one that is albino is eye color. Leucistic hummers have black eyes and albinos have pink or red eyes.

Also, albinos have entirely white feathers and leucistic birds have just a tinge of color. In this case, the white hummer has tan on its wing tips and head.

Conway said it's rare for a leucistic or albino bird, except for one naturally white, to live very long.

"It has to do with camouflage," he noted. "They will stick out and a predator would have a better chance of killing it."

In particular, a merlin or sharp-shinned hawk could prey on the bird.

He said the leucistic hummingbird should be perfectly capable of breeding.

"But one problem would be attracting a mate," Conway said. "You have to look right to get a mate."

Conway said he expects the white hummingbird to continue its migration to Mexico and Central America. With a little luck, it will pass through the Valley this spring on its return to northern breeding grounds.

Earlier this year, a leucistic cardinal was sighted at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.