The White Starling

I am sure that most people know what kind of birds starlings are. You know...the black ones with the yellow bills...noisy and often seen in large flocks. Rather dirty and unclean birds they are. Hard to imagine that some idiot in New York thought they looked pretty...so he had about 30 shipped to him from England in the late 1800s. Unfortunately...they escaped his aviary and within 100 years...had completely colonized the North American continent.

Well...I thought I had seen just about everything regarding birds...but I was wrong. Just last week here in Long Beach I saw something that I found to be most extrordinary. In a large flock of several hundred black common starlings...was a speck of white. It was so easy to see...just as white as fallen snow. No color at all. Yes, it was an albino starling. Solid white...but just like the others. What a rarity...too bad I didn't have my camera. Of course!