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All: As a followup on the pigmentally challenged Blue Jay from Hammonds Plains, I've added to the NS-RBA photo site (at the end of "other passerines) two similar ones - an individual visiting Dave Currie's backyard in fall 07 and 08, but not 09, and one at Fritz McEvoy's feeder. I'm tassuming again that they're "rare" individuals, though not species. Fritz's bird seems a pretty good match for the Hammonds Plains bird posted earlier but seems to have retained its darker blue back feathers and to be a little gray on the flanks, and so melannin gives it stronger feathers there - not so messy. Dave Currie's bird has also retained the darker blue (from melanin) back plumage, and is not frizzled. It is really odd, though, as it seems to have a distinct bluish cast on the underparts. Since blue is structurally determined, this should mean that the normally white and grey underparts feathers have been replaced by feathers that are structuraly capable of producing blue. I will have to look into this, but meanwhile in the spirit of Eric Mills' suggestion, perhaps we should call this bird "structurally enhanced" if that doesn't border on politically incorrect notions of "size matters" in both genders of humans. Cheers, Ian Ian McLaren
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