Random thought for the day. Do birds get genetic mutations?

[Geekster1963]

We have a Goldfinch that regularly comes into our garden but instead of the red bit they usually have around their face it’s yellow and black flecked. I don’t think it’s a juvenile as it seems a bit late in the year for them and all it’s other markings and feathers are adult.

Finches are famous, in the study of evolution.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin's_finches

Darwin's Finches

Yes, birds most definitely have colour variants

• white blackbirds
• patchy shadow crows
• melanic ducks

and any variant that causes no harm will continue in a wild species

Thanks waxy1 I will have a read of that.

Yes, they certainly do; all species should experience a degree of variation. For sexual reproduction mixing up chromosomes from two parents makes things interesting, but random copying errors can cause heritable changes too, which will be retained if they give the organism a reproductive advantage (I.e. can eat more food/be bigger and stronger/survives longer/more chance to procreate).

Every living thing gets genetic mutations. Everything. It doesn't have to be a harmful or massive mutation, it can be a tiny thing - if this wasn't the case, there would be nothing like the infinite variation of life on this planet.

Yes, I had an albino budgie once.

Anything with DNA will get genetic mutations.
We used to keep budgies and had to be very careful with letting them breed. One year we had a beautiful youngster that was pale yellow with white markings. Alas was a sickly bird and didn't live long.
I miss our big aviary, but we don't have room now.

There seems to be a family of blackbirds who all have a white feather in a particular place round our way. Assumed it was just the one at first, but they’ve been about for years!*

*I have no idea what the average lifespan of a blackbird is

They certainly do....

Yes. There used to be a colony of pied sparrows near us and once I saw a Cinnamon (brown) Crow that lived on a motorway roundabout I used to go and see it from time to time.

morgithology.blogspot.com/2011/02/white-winged-crows.html

A LOT of the crows round here have white secondary with feathers

There is a strain of white blackbirds (they live less long than the black, but the gene seems not to die out) a few miles away

And in terms of variability - Buzzards range from cream to almost black

Pigeons come in an amazing array of shades. I've seen pure white, charcoal black, speckled, brown and pinky beige. I can understand why pigeon-fanciers are a thing.