He’s the black bird of the family! Amazing colourless kookaburra is spotted next to a feathered-friend on a balcony
- A photo shows a black kookaburra next to a regular kookaburra in Australia
- The kookaburra is completely all black from its beak, to its feathers and its eyes
- Black or dark brown feather colour in birds is due to the excess of melanin
A black kookaburra has been spotted next to a regular-coloured companion on a balcony in Australia.
Brett Jones took to Facebook to share an image of the rare bird, asking: ‘A friend took this photo, has anyone else seen a black kookaburra?’
The kookaburra is completely all black from its beak, to its feathers and its eyes.
A black kookaburra has been spotted next to a feathered-friend on a balcony (pictured)
Some social media users joked about how the bird got its black colouring.
‘Mum bird cheated with a crow so we have a crowing hooter,’ someone joked.
‘Flew down a chimney?’ someone questioned.
‘Hatched during the bushfires?’ another asked.
The brid’s dark colours could be caused by excess production of dark pigmentation melanin, called melanism.
Melanism is usually caused by a genetic change and the genes responsible for melanism in birds are fairly well understood.
Very simple genetic changes, sometimes even a single mutation, can produce radical changes in colouration.
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