Aberrantly coloured birds have always intrigued people, resulting in many published records in the ornithological literature. In these publications a variety of names are used to identify and classify the pigment abnormalities. Most commonly, the terms Albino, Partial Albino or Leucism are used for the different forms of aberrant feathering, but in only a tiny proportion of cases are they used correctly. In the past, when little was known concerning plumage pigmentation and mutations, aberrant-coloured birds were often even viewed as being new taxa, and were even described scientifically as distinct species. In this talk Hein will give examples of aberrant individuals being named as new species, explain the nature of the most common colour abnormalities in birds and present a nomenclature for these abnormalities.