MINNEAPOLIS— Waterfowl on lakes and rivers are a common sight. But it’s the not-so-common diver that, when seen in person, is often the apple of a photographer’s eye, especially for Chris Whitty.
“I’ve been taking pictures of divers and birds on the different lakes for a long time,” he said.
Capturing wildlife on camera is one of his favorite hobbies, usually involving a hike to a remote lake in British Columbia, Canada. Loons are common in this area and some even nest there, but he always thinks of some kind of ‘white whale’.
Chris Whitty
“In my experience, if you go looking for something, you won’t find it. That’s a bit of a surprise,” he said. That’s exactly what happened one spring morning. Whitty took his typical weekend trip to a lake. “I’m like, ‘oh, there’s some loons’ and then I’m like, ‘oh my god, it’s the white one,'” he said.
Four years after first seeing it, the elusive white-and-gray-feathered diver was back at its favorite photo spot.
After getting out of his car so hastily that he forgot to put it in park, Whitty grabbed his canoe and glided across the water like the great northern diver in his lens.
“What I like to do is paddle slowly and quietly and stand in the corner for the light and then just stop and then just watch, and they just tolerated me for a long time,” said Whitty, who estimated he had photos made the white dive among other divers for at least an hour.
Chris Whitty
Dale Gentry, conservation director for the Audubon Upper Mississippi River, said it is shocking to see a diver with such color. “I’ve never seen one in real life, and I’ve only seen pictures on the Internet,” Gentry said. “Albinism and a leucistic bird. They have some type of genetic change that affects the genes that code for a pigment in their feathers called melanin.”
If an animal is albino, it cannot produce melanin, which gives the animal its color. That’s why it’s white. Leucism occurs when an animal lacks a certain amount of melanin, causing it to become partially white or gray.
“It’s much more common for birds to have small patches of white feathers,” says Gentry. “But it is less common for the entire bird to have a type of leucistic plumage.”
He estimates that 1 in 30,000 birds is leucistic. That only adds to the rarity that a diver known for its striking black plumage would sport the opposite color.
“A number of questions come to mind about the bird,” Gentry said. He wonders if he has a partner and how he will be received by the diver community given his different appearance.
Chris Whitty
If the white duiker mates, Gentry said the leucistic trait could be passed on. However, the trait can be recessive, meaning the chicks still have their normal dark color.
Whether it has descendants or not, the chances of Minnesotans finding out personally are slim to none.
“I think about 97% of North American divers nest in Canada, so we’re kind of an outlier (in Minnesota),” Gentry said.
Whitty said birdwatchers have begged him to keep the lake’s location a secret so it isn’t overrun by photographers. It’s a request he’s happy to grant, even though the encounter is really up to nature to decide.
“It’s funny, if you go looking, you won’t find it,” he said.
