A wildlife photographer devoted an entire day of his life to capture a once-in-a-lifetime photo.
Terry Nunn, the owner of Terry Nunn Photography, recently shared some truly stunning images of America’s national bird. Any picture of a bald eagle is special, but seeing – and photographing – an all white baldie is that much more impressive. The odds of seeing a leucistic bald eagle are about 1 in 30,000, and once Nunn got wind of this one in southwest Missouri, he dedicated all of his time to getting it on camera.
Anytime there’s an animal without pigmentation, it can be attributed to albinism or leucism. There’s also a condition called piebaldism, but that doesn’t result in an all white body. It usually shows up as white and brown blotches on the skin. The pictures you’ll see below of the white bald eagle are attributed to leucism, and if you aren’t familiar with those terms, both exhibit a lack of pigmentation, but they have distinct differences.
When it comes to albinism, the genetic mutation prevent the production of melanin, which is the pigment that gives color to skin, hair, and eyes. Albino animals will typically have all white skin an fur, generally accompanied by red or pink eyes (due to lack of pigmentation in the eyes). Albinism affects all melanin-producing cells, so any patterns or markings that would generally be present are not.
Albinism is a recessive genetic trait (having flashbacks to biology class?), meaning that both parents of the albino offspring must carry the trait. In the rare case that the pair both have the non-dominant trait, they can then pass it down to their baby and cause it to have a lack in hair, tissue and skin coloration.
Then you’ve got leucism, which is a different genetic mutation that causes skin, feathers, fur, or scales to have a partial loss in pigmentation. Unlike albinism, leucistic animals can still produce melanin in their eyes, so they often have normal-colored eyes (blue, brown, black, etc.) rather than red or pink. Patterns and markings may still be visible, but can appear faded or muted rather than completely absent.
In this bald eagle’s case, its colors are more muted than completely white… but it still makes for an incredible looking, patriotic bird. As Terry Nunn explained in the caption of his post, he waited patiently for the unique bald eagle to get closer, and when it finally did, the photographer pounced on the opportunity… and captured what he calls the proudest photography of his career:
“I drove back over to southwest Missouri hoping to find the leucistic eagle again and pray I could get some clean shots even at distance. No guarantees. No shortcuts. Just patience. I spent 8 hours watching her fly to a few different trees just hoping she would come a little closer.
Finally late in the day she came within a couple hundred yards which is the best opportunity I had gotten in my trips over there. Most shots came with me laying on the ground shooting through fences and trees hoping for quality shots with my Canon gear. These are some of the photos I’m most proud of in my entire photography career. Not because they’re perfect. But because of what it took to make them and the subject. Hope you enjoy them.”
