It seems that Pokemon GO has got a new shiny Pokemon available to catch right now, although its addition is likely a mistake on developer Niantic's part. Now that the last of the three legendary birds, Zapdos, is finally available to catch in large-scale raid battles, players have noticed that the creature's appearance more closely resembles the Electric-Type's shiny variant than its normal color palette.

Although shiny Pokemon are intended to be extremely rare encounters, every Zapdos in Pokemon GO currently seems to look very similar to the mythical creature's shiny version. Strangely enough, Zapdos has a very subtle shiny variant compared to other Pokemon, but there are several distinct differences between the regular and shiny version.

As we can see in this comparison image from Xous on DeviantArt, Zapdos' shiny form has an orange beak and legs, as well as a slightly darker coloring to its body. Looking at the Pokemon GO version of the creature, it's almost certainly closer to the shiny form than the normal color tones, though this is probably just a mistake on Niantic's part. It could also be that the studio felt the shiny variant was more visually striking and decided to ignore the confusion it might cause. Because Zapdos only appears as part of raid battles, the legendary bird does need to "pop" above gyms, and perhaps this was Niantic's solution.

At the very least, players aren't getting any sort of indication that the legendary Pokemon they're catching is shiny, nor is there a regular version out there in the wild somewhere. So far, the only shiny in Pokemon GO is the special Magikarp (and Gyarados) that was available early on this year.

Being a legendary Pokemon, Zapdos is quite a challenge to catch, but we've put together a guide to help players get the most possible Premier Balls during raids which should help net Pokemon fans the best chance at catching the mythical electric bird. With a little luck and the use of a few Razz Berries, trainers should now have no trouble catching the long-awaited legendary creatures.

Pokemon GO is out now for Android and iOS devices.