In May, Hubert and Louise Sparks were surprised to find a rare albino robin under a big tree in their front yard.
Imagine their surprise when, on Thursday, they found another one in the same place a month later.
“We were getting ready to go to the camp meeting, and we looked out, and I said, ‘Hubert there’s something white down there under the pear tree,’” Louise said. “And he said, ‘It’s another robin!’”
“She must have had another one in that nest,” Hubert said, showing where there was a robin’s nest in a smaller tree next to the fence in the shade of the big pear.
Meanwhile, a full-grown robin was flitting about from fence post to fence post, making excited noises.
The Sparkses found the first albino robin, which was completely white and had pink eyes, at their home at 1816 Ecton Road, on May 11.
He contacted local news media about it, then gave the baby bird to his neighbor, John James, who raises pigeons. James cared for the robin, but it died a few days later.
At the time, John Brushes, a biologist in the migratory bird program for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, told the Lexington Herald-Leader, in a story that was later published by the Associated Press, that a true albino bird is rare.
Albinism is a genetic mutation that causes a lack of pigmentation. It isn’t unusual to find a robin with white or diluted patches of feathers, but a completely white one — a true albino, is unusual.
Albino birds seldom live long because they’re easier for predators to see, and those that do survive often have trouble finding a mate.
Hubert, who goes by the nickname “Sparky,” couldn’t believe that he had found another, almost identical, but slightly larger, fledgling.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” he said. “Not too many people have. It’s rare.”
The Sprakers didn’t say what they intended to do with the new bird, which was just beginning to learn to fly.
Imagine their surprise when, on Thursday, they found another one in the same place a month later.
“We were getting ready to go to the camp meeting, and we looked out, and I said, ‘Hubert there’s something white down there under the pear tree,’” Louise said. “And he said, ‘It’s another robin!’”
“She must have had another one in that nest,” Hubert said, showing where there was a robin’s nest in a smaller tree next to the fence in the shade of the big pear.
Meanwhile, a full-grown robin was flitting about from fence post to fence post, making excited noises.
The Sparkses found the first albino robin, which was completely white and had pink eyes, at their home at 1816 Ecton Road, on May 11.
He contacted local news media about it, then gave the baby bird to his neighbor, John James, who raises pigeons. James cared for the robin, but it died a few days later.
At the time, John Brushes, a biologist in the migratory bird program for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, told the Lexington Herald-Leader, in a story that was later published by the Associated Press, that a true albino bird is rare.
Albinism is a genetic mutation that causes a lack of pigmentation. It isn’t unusual to find a robin with white or diluted patches of feathers, but a completely white one — a true albino, is unusual.
Albino birds seldom live long because they’re easier for predators to see, and those that do survive often have trouble finding a mate.
Hubert, who goes by the nickname “Sparky,” couldn’t believe that he had found another, almost identical, but slightly larger, fledgling.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” he said. “Not too many people have. It’s rare.”
The Sprakers didn’t say what they intended to do with the new bird, which was just beginning to learn to fly.
