Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) [Special Leucistic Edition]

Friends of the feathered --

Welcome back. Let us not speak of the season past, for though NY was spared winter's icy whip, our climate was nevertheless "foggy, raw, and dull" (Henry V, Act 3, Scene 5).

Spring has dawned, and her rosy-fingers are waving in the birds by the cartload. To begin the spring 2016 edition of Theo's Aviary, I share with you a Hermit Thrush I saw near Triplets Bridge in Central Park NY, 4/24/2016 AD. But this is no ordinary hermit thrush... this is a Leucistic individual!! (click on any of the pictures below for a higher resolution image)

To aid in your contemplation of this unusual bird, I submit the following passage:

"And when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly hues - every stately or lovely emblazoning - the sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods; yea, and the gilded velvets of butterflies, and the butterfly cheeks of young girls; all these are but subtile deceits, not actually inherent in substances, but only laid on from without; so that all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within; and when when we proceed further, and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colorless in itself, and if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge - pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper; and like wilful travellers in Lapland, who refuse to wear colored and coloring glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched infidel fazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him. And of all these things the Albino whale [Ed: or Hermit Thrush?] was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?" 

Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 42, "The Whiteness of the Whale" 

An utterly beautiful bird. Yes, wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?

 (For those curious, there is good comparison of Albinism vs. Leucism at the British Trust for Ornithology website)