white blue jay

A rare white blue jay was spotted in Canada

A rare white blue jay was just spotted chilling near a bird feeder in Canada, happily chowing down on his own Thanksgiving feast.

Nova Scotia resident Melanie Elderkin Taylor spotted the ghost-like bird on Oct. 11 as she was sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner in Little River, Digby.

"At first we had no idea what kind of bird it was," she told Freshdaily. "We had never seen one before."

After a little research, Taylor discovered that the bird was a white blue jay, also known as a "leucistic jay."

Leucism is a rare genetic mutation that prevents some pigments from being deposited normally on feathers, resulting in pale colors (not to be confused with albinism, which is a total lack of color).

And leucistic jays are indeed very rare.

The disorder is believed to occur in only about one per cent of the bird population.

The majority of blue jays typically have vivid blue colouring along the crest, back, wings and tail.

Taylor said that the snow-coloured blue jay only stayed for a short visit on Sunday, and then stopped by the feeder once more on Oct. 12.

"We haven't seen him since," she added.

Hopefully, the white blue jay is migrating somewhere a little more tropical than Canada for winter.

Lead photo by

Melanie Elderkin Taylor


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