Albino ruby-throated hummingbirds are extremely rare, so Dorothy Usher of Cameron grabbed her camera on Tuesday for a great photograph of this one and a normal-colored hummingbird fluttering nearby. The albino first appeared in her yard over the weekend, about the same time an albino hummingbird disappeared from a backyard in Lake Waukomis.

Are there two albino hummingbirds in northwest Missouri, or did the same bird ride a breeze north? Nature photographers who saw the first reported bird say there are similarities in the scattered blackish down feathers, but they can’t tell for sure. A hummingbird expert said the pink bill, legs and eyes separate true albino phases from similar hummingbirds that are white but have black bills, legs and eyes.