[MDOsprey] Question about immature Cardinal
Depuy, Dianne (depuyd@rvims.nci.nih.gov)
Mon, 4 Oct 1999 11:47:00 -0400
I am an as-yet inexperienced and uneducated birder, so I want to ask the rest of
you out there if it is normal to see a young Cardinal being fed and/or led by
its father at this time of year?
Background: I was at Centennial Lake in Howard County on Saturday morning
(10/2) and investigated a song bird in the bushes. I couldn't make out what it
was, as it was plain dull brown with a very small "crest" (the ends of a couple
of feathers sticking out) at the back of its head and a long tail, and it was
flittering about with a lot of leaves between it and my binoculars. We then saw
a mature male Cardinal hop over to the smaller brown bird. There were berries
in the bushes that they were in, and we thought that we saw the mature cardinal
feed berries to the smaller bird. Then the mature cardinal headed up the tree,
hopping up a branch at a time. The smaller brown bird followed suit unsteadily.
Its wings and tail feathers were opening and fluttering quite a bit. As it got
higher and we were able to see it more clearly, we could tell that its tail was
tinged red/pink when it was opened and the tiny crest was more visible. We
presumed at this point that it was a young cardinal being "taught" by its
father, although we would have expected to see this behavior earlier in the
year. How long do young birds follow their parents around? I assume that the
answer is different across different bird species, but a general idea would be
good to hear.
Thanks for your help -
Dianne
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Dianne M. Depuy
IMS, Inc.
Dianne_Depuy@nih.gov