STONE the crows a strange-looking white version of the bird has been spotted in the Ribble Valley.

An amateur photographer sent in this picture of the white crow perched on a Clitheroe rooftop after being puzzled by its unusual colouring.

But before amateur ornithologists get in a flap at the prospect of an exotic rare breed arriving in East Lancashire, local experts have a more mundane explanation.

Unlike his black-coloured cousins the white carrion crow has a rare genetic condition that gives it an albino appearance.

And experts reckon it isn't the only white sheep of the crow family with a handful of them breeding every year in the Ribble Valley.

Tony Cooper, of East Lancashire Ornithologists' Club, said: "These white crows have been in the area for the last 25/30 years, but I can understand people getting excited if they didn't know what it was.

"There's been one in Mitton for years and I think the Nick of Pendle, near Sabden, has one.

"They are not albinos, instead they are something called leucistic. It's a genetic condition that means, like albinos, they are lacking dark pigments in their plumage.

"But, unlike albinos they don't have pink eyes and other soft parts of the body. It's not a common condition, but it's not unknown."

The carrion crow is one of Britain's largest crows and, after the rook, is the second most common.

The photographer who sent in the picture, who wants to remain anonymous, said: "I've seen this bird every summer for the last couple of years and always thought it was strange."