Saturday, August 9, 2008

My big bald bird...

About three months ago, we noticed what we considered to be an odd site. A male cardinal hopping around our back yard appeared to be going bald. At first, he had a few feather on the top of his head, but as the summer progressed, he eventually went completely bald.

Apparently baldness is not deterrent in cardinal sex appeal, because he had a mate (I understand this, as Mr. H has completely shaved his head). We frequently see the two of them at our feeders in the back yard.

I thought this little guy was doomed. And that we had witnessed some bizarre twist of nature. Little did I know that this is a relatively common thing. Seriously.

I tried to take a picture of our little guy, but couldn't get a close enough shot.

Turns out, I don't need to given the plethora of information about bald cardinals...

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/BaldBirds.htm
http://www.tulsaaudubon.org/bald_cardinals.htm
http://www.birdchick.com/2007/08/bald-cardinals-and-other-bald-birds.html



The internet is a beautiful thing...

2 comments:

Gigamatt said...

I had no idea till you posted this -- had never seen one. Then, we came home one afternoon to see one on our deck railing, happily frolicking in the spray from the sprinkler.

E said...

Seriously? That's crazy! We asked someone at the bird store about it (before I found the web site) and she said that the bird would probably die. Apparently not.