Rare sparrow arrives white on cue
ONE of the world’s rarest birds had experts in a utter when it made a flying visit to a village.
The extremely rare true albino house sparrow, distinctive for its pink eyes and pure white feathers, was first spotted by nature photographer Carl Bovis’ eight- year-old daughter Skye Rose – and her thrilled dad took a photograph.
Carl, of Westonzoyland, Somerset, said: “Skye Rose told me about a white sparrow that she’d seen while walking home from the village allotments with her mum and a couple of days later I had a message from a resident telling me about it. So I went to find and photograph it one evening.”
But Carl warned: “Unfortunately albino birds rarely reach adulthood as they are easy targets for predators and have poor eyesight to spot danger.
“I saw two sparrowhawks fly over as I was photographing this special little bird. I hope it survives for as long as possible.”
RSPB monitoring has suggested the UK house sparrow population dropped by 71 per cent between 1977 and 2008.
Something to tweet about... look at Carl's picture of the albino bird in contrast to a house sparrow with normal plumage.