Bearded Lady Cardinal?
This female cardinal was hanging around in my buddy Clay Taylor's backyard. She looks like a female, but seems to have a red beard. I checked Cornell's Birds of North America and found this:"Mix of male and female plumage reported, with red on one side and gray-olive on the other (Laskey 1969); also albinistic individuals (e.g., Hartman 1968, SUL) and a melanistic male with a black head (Brooks 1934). One rare instance of a female that obtained male plumage color in fifth year of 8 yr of recapture; she returned to female color in next year (Baumgartner 1986)."
posted by birdchick at 6:57 PM
4 Comments:
THAT'S weird. I've never seen one like that.
But hey. She could like join the circus.
Would that we could see a cardinal here in the Northwest! But, we have the Steller's jay, that is all blue like a cardnal is red!
I wonder why no cardinals here in western Washington. They live in the southwest. Hmmmm
I had a cardinal that turned into a bluejay one year then it turned back into a cardinal.
On Aug 5, 2006, I had a rosy-red bird in my yard - got 2 looks at it, the first 'something red that doesn't quite look like a cardinal' alert and the second after I went outside (no bins - it was close).
My notes from the moment:
dull orange beak
ashy gray-black hood - not a cap, but a real hood
dull-rosy red body as if washed with gray
black eye
size of a cardinal, maybe a tad smaller
no crest
I saw another one like this in the summer of 07 but more briefly.
I checked the notes with an expert here in Pittsburgh and he didn't have a definitive answer but said, "Don't give up on a cardinal."
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