Rare white crow sightings prove that ‘’pag pumuti ang uwak’ can actually happen

The myth of the white crow meets reality in Mindanao.

For generations, Filipinos have used the phrase “’pag pumuti ang uwak” to describe something impossible — a thing so absurd it could never happen. It was the ultimate expression of disbelief, casually thrown into conversations whenever someone made an unrealistic promise or an unbelievable claim. But nature, it seems, has a strange sense of humor. Because somewhere in Mindanao, white uwaks are quietly proving the old idiom wrong.

Recent sightings of rare white crows in Misamis Oriental have fascinated wildlife enthusiasts and ordinary Filipinos alike. One of the most famous is a bird nicknamed “Warey,” a white crow discovered injured in the forests of Jasaan in 2020 and cared for by a local family ever since. Despite attempts to release it back into the wild, the bird reportedly keeps returning home — as if determined to stay visible in a country that once treated its existence as impossible.

A glitch in genetics

The bird is not a different species. It is still a regular Philippine jungle crow, only born with rare genetic conditions such as albinism or leucism that strip away the dark pigmentation from its feathers. Scientists say these conditions are extraordinarily uncommon, with full albinism occurring in as few as one out of every tens of thousands of crow births.

And yet, they exist.

That may be the funniest part of all. An entire culture built an idiom around the certainty that crows could never turn white, only for biology to eventually say otherwise.

Of course, the phrase will probably survive. Filipinos are unlikely to stop saying “’pag pumuti ang uwak” anytime soon. But thanks to these rare sightings, the expression now carries an unintended irony. Because somewhere out there, perched on a tree branch in Mindanao, is living proof that even the things we dismiss as impossible can suddenly appear before our eyes.