Last week I nearly fell over sideways scrambling for the binoculars when I spied an “exotic” bird in my pumpkin patch. It has a blue head, bright orange beak, brown body and red tail. I had never seen anything like it. I spent hours pouring over my bird field guidebook and even more time scouring the internet in an attempt to identify this mystery bird. After fruitless searching, Andy suggested that it was a bald cardinal.
A quick google search confirmed that cardinals are susceptible to feather mites, and although they are able to preen them away from their body, tail, and wing feathers, they cannot do this to their head. The result is the mites cause inflammation of the feather shaft and the feathers fall out. They grow back during the next molt.
I made it my mission this week to photograph the elusive bald female cardinal. We have a pair of nesting cardinals who have been regular visitors to our feeders all year. We only recently started attracting a second pair, and this one was apparently part of a third coupling. The newer visitors are not as common, so I have to spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for their return. Cardinals feed early in the morning and late in the evening just before dusk. Tonight I was fortunate enough to have the bald female at two of our feeders. From my vantage point inside I was succesful in capturing her in video – the quality is not great due to the low lighting but it’s good enough.
Who knew that underneath their feathers, cardinals are blue?
July 13th, 2009 | 
