Message:

[

Previous   Next

]

By Topic:

[

Previous   Next

]

Subject:

Re: strange looking cardinal

From:

Sydney Jacobs

Reply-To:

Sydney Jacobs

Date:

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:11:21 -0400

Thanks to all of you who wrote about "bald cardinals"!  I am new to  
this list and  this was my first post - nice bunch of folks y'all  
are, and I learn alot -
Sydney
On Jun 29, 2006, at 10:59 PM, Edward Boyd wrote:

> For those of you that haven't seen this before, each summer during  
> the period in which Cardinals molt their head feathers, the adults  
> often get a bald appearance as they usually molt off all of their  
> head feather at once. With-in two weeks or so the feathers will be  
> grown in enough to hide the dark skin underlying the feathers that  
> we usually see and all will be normal in the world in regards to  
> Cardinals again. This is just a predecessor to the rest of the  
> molts that will be occurring in the bird world after the young have  
> fledged and it will signal the end of territorial displays and  
> singing as the birds become quiet due to their hormonal changes and  
> their vulnerability due to the loss of flight feathers. When the  
> molt is complete, the birds will begin other changes that will  
> prepare them for migration or for the change of seasons and the  
> winters months that lie ahead. Some neotropic species do not  
> complete their molts until arriving on the wintering grounds after  
> migration is complete, this is especially true in some flycatchers.
>
> Ed Boyd
> Westminster, MD
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Monroe Harden"  
> <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 8:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] strange looking cardinal
>
>
>> Sydney wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> We have a cardinal in our yard with a bluish head and no crest!  The
>>> rest of the bird definitely looks like a male cardinal.  I don't
>>> think he is bald.- he is hanging around our yard and visiting the
>>> feeder.  Anyone else seen something like this?
>>> Sydney
>>
>> Could it be a Blue Grosbeak?
>>
>> Monroe Harden
>>
>