An extremely rare white sparrow has been spotted in Cardiff. The unusual white-feathered bird was spotted in a garden near the city's Roath Park earlier in May.
The white sparrow was spotted with one of its more common counterparts when it was photographed. According to the RSPB, monitoring suggests a "severe decline" of the house sparrow population in the UK, estimated as dropping by 71 per cent between 1977 and 2008 with "substantial declines in both rural and urban populations".
White sparrows are even less common than white blackbirds. Leucism is a genetic condition which results in a partial loss of pigmentation and in birds the lack of cells responsible for melanin production often leaves their feathers white or washed out in colour.
