The legend of the white raven continues in Coombs.
The mysterious snow-white ravens are only known to exist on the mid-Island and have been documented there for more than two decades.
The strange corvids are considered leucistic — not albino, which have no pigment at all. These ravens have blue eyes and likely have genetic defects that dilute their natural black colour, says Mike Yip, a noted bird photographer and author who has been photographing the white birds since 2007.
The latest discovery was made by Bridget Flynn on May 16 near the end of Winchester Road in Coombs.
Flynn contacted Yip, who was able to photograph the white raven before it left its nesting area with its black siblings.
“This marks the continuation of one of nature’s most fascinating spectacles, and is rare everywhere in the world except in the Coombs-Qualicum region on central Vancouver Island,” said Yip.
He said the white ravens are the product of a mated pair of common ravens carrying the same rare recessive gene.
Yip said there have been at least one or two white ravens hatched in the area every year since the early 1990s.
Ravens typically live for up to 20 years, mate for life and lay up to five eggs each season. Yip believes the mating pair on the central Island have been producing at least one white raven a year — sometimes up to three — along with traditional black ravens.
It isn’t clear how old the mating pair might be or whether there are other pairs with the recessive gene.
Yip believes the white ravens don’t live long in the wild.
He said if they did, there would be more sightings in other areas.
“I believe that most white ravens do not survive the winter,” he said. “All the white ravens I have seen have been juveniles, and I have only heard of one in over 20 years that had survived the winter.”
Yip said the feathers of the white ravens are less durable and have less insulating value, which makes them susceptible to hypothermia. He also said their weaker eyesight may impair their ability to find food, and that it’s possible their striking colour might also make them more likely to attract predators.
Yip calls the white ravens “a freak of nature” and declares the Coombs region the “White Raven Capital of the World.”
