[Just to preserve the list's sterling rep for factuality, may I note for the record that there are apparently white (or whitish) ravens -- not albino, per se, but "leucistic."]
White raven draws some double takes; Unusual bird shows up in Fairbanks for fourth winter of foraging.
By Tim Mowry Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (Published: November 4, 2002)
Fairbanks -- When people call the Alaska Bird Observatory to report that they just saw a white raven, they have a hard time believing it themselves.
"They usually start out by saying, 'Tell me I just saw a white raven,' " said ABO executive director Nancy DeWitt. "I think people are pretty surprised to see one, and they should be."
Judging from several recent sightings around town, it appears the white raven that has been seen in Fairbanks the past three winters has returned for another winter of foraging. Sevin Bullwinkle saw the bird Sunday outside her house on Lathrop Street and snapped a picture to prove it.
"I just came out of the house, and it was sitting on the ground," said Bullwinkle, who lives a block from a trash bin. "I'm a fanatic about ravens, and seeing a white one was pretty exciting. I had never heard of one."
While there is no way to prove it is the same bird, white ravens are so rare that the chances of its being a different one are slim. ... The raven is more of a cream or ashy gray color than it is white, said Dan Gibson, bird collections manager for the University of Alaska Museum on campus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
"White is an exaggeration," said Gibson, who has seen the bird several times. But, he said, "next to a normal raven it's a strikingly different bird." The museum has just one white raven in its collection of more than 18,000 ravens collected from around the state. The lone bird was found in 1952 on Steele Creek Road in Fairbanks. The white raven in Fairbanks is not an albino but is referred to as a leucistic, which means it has less than normal pigmentation that results in a pale or washed-out appearance. Albino birds lack any kind of pigmentation and have red eyes. ...
<http://www.ewebtribe.com/NACulture/articles/ADNWhtRavenFbx.htm>
Carl