March 03, 2009

An Abert's Squirrel Eating Sunflower Seeds

Abert's squirrel, March 2009, Photo by Chas S. CliftonThis Abert's squirrel is unusual in two respects.

First, it is in the bird feeder, making it only the second Abert's to have gone there. I blogged earlier about the trail-blazer squirrel.

There is a black one hanging around with this gray one (courtship?)--and maybe that is the same black squirrel that I previously photographed.

Which brings me to the second oddity: All that I ever see in southern Colorado are black-phase Abert's squirrels, so this one's coloration is unusual for our area. Obviously the genes for the two-tone coat must be present in the black population.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I enjoyed your photo of the Abert's squirrel. I just did a blog on them too. Ours are the all black variety.