Greenbank resident Vicki Burdeaux and her partner Marsha Coolidge were sitting outside their home last week, enjoying the weather and eating lunch, when they noticed an unusual sight.
White as snow, a hummingbird thrummed through the air, stopping at their feeder to take a drink with its long pink beak.
Coolidge captured videos and photos, which Burdeaux showed to a friend from the Whidbey Audubon Society, Linda Griesbach. A few months ago on South Whidbey, Griesbach had her own rare sighting of a robin with leucism, a condition affecting the pigmentation of the bird. The robin was partially white, with a pale back and red breast.
But Burdeaux determined that her hummingbird is albino, rather than leucistic, because it is white all over. She also believes it is an Anna’s hummingbird because of its size. Rufous hummingbirds, which are much smaller, also frequent Whidbey Island.
Burdeaux spied the odd bird again this week on Wednesday.
“You gotta be in the right place at the right time,” she said.
Her neighbor, Don Tremblay, was actually the first to spot the albino hummingbird two weeks earlier. He’s seen it much more often and closer, at least a dozen times in his yard.
“Last week it came so close to me that I could feel the breeze from the wings, the flutter,” he said.
And even from a distance, it’s easy to spot because of its coloring.
“They’re just fearless,” he said with a laugh. “Nothing seems to deter them.”
(Photo by Marsha Coolidge) An albino hummingbird stops to take a drink at a feeder in Greenbank, not far from the post office.
