A white raven? You must be hallucinating! But there really are such things – or mostly white ones, anyway. Leading plumage expert Hein van Grouw explains why members of the crow family can appear as pied as magpies or white as snow, and how what’s called leucism relates to our cage and aviary birds. Sticking with exotica, we hear from some softbill breeders who are working with some very cool birds indeed, including one of the editor’s favourites. We get a participant’s eye view of the recent National at Stafford and in-depth contributions on canaries and finches native and exotic. And perhaps the best saved till last: the Avian Draw raffle is on again, with forty-plus amazing prizes and the proceeds going to deserving clubs.

A white raven? You must be hallucinating! But there really are such things – or mostly white ones, anyway. Leading plumage expert Hein van Grouw explains why members of the crow family can appear as pied as magpies or white as snow, and how what’s called leucism relates to our cage and aviary birds. Sticking with exotica, we hear from some softb....