THE NEW YORK TIMES – Bill Diller, a photographer living in Huron County, Mich., had never seen a snowy owl quite like this.
In January, Mr. Diller’s neighbor told him about a “red-spotted snowy owl” in the area. It’s a part of Michigan known as “the Thumb,” which becomes home to many snowy owls in the winter.
People were calling the bird “Rusty.”
“I had never heard of such a thing,” Mr. Diller said, “so I figured either he didn’t know what he was talking about or this was some kind of exotic bird from Asia.”
When he soon shared pictures on Facebook of the eye-catchingly orange bird perched atop a utility pole, he helped create a feathered phenomenon.
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The discovery has perplexed avian experts, too, creating an enduring mystery about what might have made a white bird turn bright orange.
Julie Maggert, a snowy owl enthusiast, heard of Mr. Diller’s sighting and became determined to see “Creamsicle,” as she affectionately nicknamed the bird.
She made a series of visits over several days from her home in Central Michigan with her Nikon Z8 and a zoom lens.
Her pictures helped make the case undeniable: The bird shared a color scheme with the planet Jupiter or a clownfish. But why?
Scientists who have studied owls for years struggled to explain the bird’s curious plumage.
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“In over 35 years of study, we have found over 300 nests and banded over 800 chicks,” Denver Holt, director of the Owl Research Institute in Charlo, Mont., said in an email. “We have never seen any plumage aberration, or anything like what is in the photos of the owl.”
Kevin McGraw, a bird coloration expert and biologist at Michigan State University, shared a surprising hypothesis:
The owl became orange as a result of a genetic mutation driven by environmental stress, such as exposure to pollution …