Rare 'one in a billion' sight in Aussie backyard stuns
The incredible black kookaburra appears to have melanism which changes it's usually white or grey feathers to a shade of black.
It's not every day you come across a 'one in a billion' find sitting in your backyard. But that was the reality for one woman who recently spotted a rare black kookaburra – with the close encounter sparking envy among Aussies.
"Is this an extremely dirty blue-winged kookaburra or is there something else going on?" she questioned on social media alongside pictures of the "stunning" and "amazing" native bird this week. And she wasn't alone in questioning why the usually white or grey feathers appeared to be a deep shade of black.
Australian bird expert Britt, known online as, well, 'Britt the Bird Expert', agreed it's "pretty rare" when speaking to Yahoo News Australia about the images shared online. The bird "looks to be melanistic", she said.
"Melanism is when excess melanin pigment is produced in an animal's fur, feathers or scales," she explained. "Melanism is usually something they are born with and it is pretty rare."
She described it as a "random genetic fluke" with famous Aussie vet Dr Chris Brown previously suggesting it's possibly a "one in a billion" phenomenon. "Only a handful of black kookaburras ... have ever been reported in the world," he previously shared after a Perth sighting in 2018.
At the time, a few sightings of black kookaburras had been recorded in parts of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, but until then, none had ever been spotted in WA. "Black mutations are 20 times rarer than even albinos," the famous vet said.
Rare black kookaburra sightings leave Aussies in awe
While they are indeed rare, a search on Facebook shows several images over the years shared by Aussies who were lucky enough to spot one in the wild, mostly in NSW and Queensland — and each and every time people were in awe.
While the location wasn't revealed, the woman's recent sighting had her branded "so lucky" by others who commented on the uniqueness of the "gorgeous", "stunning" and "incredible" native bird.
"Wow, I never knew they existed," one person admitted.
What is melanism and leucistism in animals?
Explaining melanism further, Britt said it's been documented in many bird species. It's common in ducks, game birds, and many birds of prey, but in rare cases, penguins, flamingos, egrets, and many small garden birds too.
It's also responsible for creating black leopards and black foxes. "The disruption of normal placement of the pigment melanin can make a melanistic animal, partially or entirely black, black and white, reddish, or oddly patterned," she explained.
While melanistic animals have an excess of pigment, the opposite is said of leucistic beings which lack pigment. Leucistism has been documented in several birds living in urban Aussie areas, particularly among magpies — but sometimes kookaburras as well. Amazingly, a leucistic platypus and several kangaroos have also been reported in the past.
Different to albinism, leucistic animals have reduced pigmentation that can occur due to either environmental or genetic factors, making them white.
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