Steller's Jay (Partial Albino)
Steller's Jay Video Clips
This partial-albino Steller's Jay arrived in late May of 2003. What a surprise when we first saw him. Exclamations like "What is that!?" was our first comment. We immediately befriended him. We started throwing him peanuts and he continued to stop by on a regular basis for the special treats. The last time we saw Albee Jay was in August of 2005. We assume that he went to Peanut Heaven.
In the spring of 2004, we noticed the partial-albino Steller's Jay had a white fungus growth on his left leg . We assumed it was avian pox. He held his leg close to his body so we knew that it was bothering him. After doing some extensive internet searches, we read that many diseases can be cured if they have enough food to fight off the disease.
We thought we'd give it a try. I started making peanut butter balls, the size of a peanut, out of the peanut butter cake recipe. We rolled the peanut butter ball out to him. He loved them. In a little over a month, we noticed his leg was cleared up. We don't know if the extra nutrition helped him overcome the disease or not, but we sure like to think that those peanut balls did the trick.
For more information, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has an article on albinism and other abnormal feather coloring.