Leucistic water rail

August 10th, 2013

This unusual water rail was photographed at the Fowlmere RSPB reserve. Like all water rail it is a very secretive bird and spends most of it's time hidden away in the reed beds. The bird has white feathers on it's back and an extra long bright red beak compared to the normal water rail. The last image in this post shows a water rail with more usual markings taken in the same reserve when the reed bed was frozen over.