Hi Colin,
I never considered that white Paradise Flys might be rufous in the
nest, but it would make sense. Because female White PFlys are rufous
and indistinguishable from Rufous PFlys, the presence of a rufous
female in the White areas would not look out of place, and a juv male
would be assumed female if it were rufous. As far as I can tell there
has never been anything but white males.
I wonder if anyone has actually looked at an active nest of White
birds and seen what the juvs look like when fledged. I am really
intrigued about your red bird moulting to white, you don’t have any
images of this do you?
Why have there not been other records of this change, it’s very odd. A
red spotted White PFLy or a white-spotted Red PFly would be hard to
miss!
There’s another issue that we have not touched on. Is there a white
bellied White PFly region and a dark bellied White PFly region, or are
they all mixed up together. What do you see on the coast. Birds from
Nairobi, Thika all (without any in depth study) appear to be white,
but from what I remember of Baringo they are all dark, but this is
just a general feeling and there has been no scientific recording by
any means.
Intriguing things come out of the commonest species!
Best for now
Brian

PS under the current taxonomy not only is the incredible rufous and
white tailed bird ferreti, but all the eastern Kenyan birds both
rufous and white forms are feretti as well.
It all got a bit misleading with the Handbook images, when I first
found a rufous and white bird in NNP, I was staggered, but found it in
Handbook beautifully illustrated as the typical feretti. I wrote to
Martin Woodcock who promptly replied that he was asked to illustrate
feretti by the authors and the museum supplied the Ethiopian form.
That was fair enough. However I was confused at the initial reading
about the range given under ferreti as all of eastern Kenya, but my
NNP bird was my first!
Yesterday evening I revisited this image, and read the text, and found
to the left of the Ethiopian ferreti was one of our all white birds,
and this is labelled as nominate. Nominate birds are all rufous birds
at all times, so this too was misleading as it appeared now that white
birds and rufous birds are given as different races!
There is a lot of interesting work available for research into the PFlys.


On 6/27/14, Colin Jackson <colin.jackson@arocha.org> wrote:
> On the coast in Watamu we have the all white bird quite commonly (ringed
> several at the A Rocha Kenya centre and also in Arabuko-Sokoke). I have
> never seen a white female - has anyone else? I have also found immature
> birds moulting from red to white and believe that only males are ever
> all white and that they start off life as red juveniles. I was also
> surprised to see a fully white male at St Andrew's Turi, near Molo, this
> last weekend. Paradise Flys are about the only birds that are regularly
> in the eucalyptus plantations - which is where this bird was.
> Stunning... as is the /ferreti/!
>
> Colin
>
> On 24/06/14 19:52, Brian Finch birdfinch@gmail.com [kenyabirdsnet] wrote:
>>
>> Dear Clive,
>> I would have thought that if they were a phase, then we would see so
>> much more of them, and they are a real rarity in Kenya, hence not
>> being illustrated in the regional guides.
>> As regards to the all white birds, these are northern dry birds, where
>> they are exclusive, whilst red birds are in moister habitats. Where
>> the white bird is not found, as in southern Kenya uplands, but also
>> Magadi Road for some reason, it is all red. However we do get the very
>> rare superb all white bird turning up in Nairobi NP from time to time.
>> But ferreti I have only ever seen twice in Kenya, both in NNP, whilst
>> in Ethiopia it is a dominant form in some areas. You would expect it
>> to be reported from our northern borderlands, but as far as I can make
>> out, they are all normal whites.
>> I am posting the Nakuru bird I stumbled across in the internet,
>> correctly labelled,
>> Best for now
>> Brian
>>
>> On 6/24/14, Clive Mann <clivefmann@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > It's quite possible that white birds are not morphs but phases, the
>> white
>> > birds being older, and found in both sexes. This seems to be the case
>> > in
>> > Asian PF.
>> >
>> > Clive Mann
>> >
>> >
>> > On 24 June 2014 17:20, Brian Finch birdfinch@gmail.com [kenyabirdsnet]
>> > <
>> > kenyabirdsnet-noreply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Dear Peter, James and all,
>> >> Just to show what a spectacular bird ferreti is, attached are images I
>> >> found on the net from Ethiopia. Whilst I was ferreting around for this
>> >> bird (pun intended) I found an image of a bird taken in Nakuru!!!
>> >> Now although the guides have sadly omitted the bird, now you know what
>> >> you are on the lookout for!
>> >> Best for now
>> >> Brian
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Dr C F Mann
>> >
>>
>> 
>
>