Brief introduction of white sparrow

Scientists have invested a lot of money to determine the reason for the decline of sparrow population. The preliminary investigation results show that the decrease of insect population and the lack of grass seeds may be the main reasons, especially in London. However, the habitat of these sparrows is mainly in the fields that are more suitable for living in the rural areas of southern Wales, so the above explanation is unconvincing. Amateur photographer David Lloyd found these 20 sparrows while he was on vacation somewhere near Newquay. A white sparrow in the flock aroused Lloyd's great interest.

Lloyd, a 45-year-old New Zealander, works in an advertising company in London. Although he didn't specialize in birds, he found something special from it. Lloyd said, "This is the first time I have taken a photo of a bird. I was in a very favorable position. You can see the white sparrow standing on the picket fence, and other sparrows also landed on it. I took a few photos first, but the effect was not very good, so I decided to wait another two or three days and finally captured these unusual photos. " According to experts, white feathers are extremely rare and are caused by a disease called albinism.

This condition will affect the skin color, but unlike albinism, it will not turn the patient's eyes pink. Sometimes the albino gene only affects a certain part of the bird's body, so you will occasionally see a black bird with a white head or a few white wings. Lloyd said: "It's not so rare for a sparrow to grow white, but I think it's a bit strange because it's only white all over." I learned that white sparrows will be squeezed out of the flock and sometimes even eat each other. What I found strange is that this white sparrow is at peace with the rest of the sparrows. "

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Love of Birds (RSPB) said that the life span of white sparrows may be shorter than that of ordinary sparrows: "Sometimes, without any problems, the life span of white sparrows is the same as that of normal birds, but if they cannot benefit from the same camouflage characteristics as other birds, white sparrows are more likely to become prey of natural enemies such as sparrows and eagles."