We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post to direct your attention to a link to a YELLOW northern cardinal found in Kentucky. This photo is interesting on many levels: Number 1. It’s a freaking yellow cardinal. Number 2. Is that raw chicken breasts being offered as suet on that feeder?
The cardinal is cool. But what made it yellow? I didn’t think cardinal color came from food like it does with house finches. Is this bird genetically lacking in carotenoids? So many questions!
If that is raw chicken in the suet feeder–that is disturbing. Not due to cannibalism but raw chicken could have all sorts of disease transmittable to birds. Think of the salmonella that could explode in a feeding situation. I’m all for offering table scraps to birds, but for heaven sakes, if you’re going to offer chicken, offer it cooked.
UPDATE 1: I just got an email from the photographer of the yellow cardinal in Kentucky:
Sharon,
I was reading your blog about the Yellow Cardinal that I took the picture of. I can assure you that it IS cantaloupe in the suet feeder. We were experimenting to see if the birds appreciated the sweetness of it.
thanks
David Gourley
UPDATE 2: I found a couple of other photos of yellow cardinals–one in Ohio and one in Mississippi (the male in Mississippi has even been observed feeding chicks, so hey, he found a mate).
I wonder if it’s cantaloupe. My original reaction was also raw chicken breast, but that piece that is closest to the cardinal seems rather angular in a way that raw chicken is not typically able to maintain unless it is frozen (and offering birds frozen raw meat strikes me as stranger even than offering them raw meat at all).
Excellent picture, thanks for sharing!
Someone else pointed that out to me. Blogger Blobbybird Man said, “Where I see melons @birdchick sees breasts.”
To me, I don’t see melon, but boy that would make a whole lot more sense than raw chicken!
Wow! Pretty bird! But I’m guessing that’s canteloupe in the feeder, too. At least I hope so.
I just got an email from the guy who has the feeder. It’s melon, not raw chicken.
Glad to see the mystery is solved. It has made me wonder what kind of scraps are good – and are not good – for birds. Perhaps a further discussion is needed?
My question: can this beautiful yellow cardinal attract the gals or do they take one look and say “weird.”
That is just so cool!
I have to say, I bet I am not the only one that wishes this was a mutation that would breed into the population. I mean, how cool would that be? Sadly, I know it isn’t but I birder can dream can’t he!