Strange Looking Crane

I was at Monte Vista Wildlife refuge last weekend watching as the crane migration came through. I spotted a strangely colored Sandhill Crane. He had a neck almost entirely white (like a Whopping Crane would have). He was the same size as the other Sandhills and had the same face markings as a Sandhill. I recall hearing back in the 70's and 80's there was a program which planted Whopping Crane eggs in the nests of Sandhill Cranes. I also recall hearing the Whooping Cranes did not pair up and instead paired with Sandhill Cranes. Is it possible they had eggs which survived and then passed on some gene? Or is it as simple as a dormant gene which shows up in 1 out of every so many thousand Sandhills which causes no pigmentation in the neck feathers?

I included a shot of him out in the corn field.

the loreal and forehead (frontal) red plmage distributuion is that of a sandhill crane, and the absence of melanin in the plumage of the rest of the head and neck must at least be considered a possible example of local leukism and not a priori evidence of sandhill whooper hybridization.
Great image; great question!

Dave in SD

Thanks David...as far as the image, it's not one I am over the top about. He pretty much didn't give me much action and this is a large crop straight out of the camera with no processing. I wish he would have been closer to the access I had and provided me something unique because I thought he was an interesting subject for sure.

I think Dave is correct - there was a crane somewhat similar to this at Bosque a couple of years ago, and they thought it was a leucistic crane. I guess that's possible in any of the bird species.

Nice documentation!

Sandy