Bald Male Cardinal
Jul 17, 2015 14:02:32 #
Probably the ugliest cardinal I have ever seen! I assume he is molting or possibly some infestation. I have seen him and his mate at my bird feeders several times and he seems healthy. What do you think?
Jul 17, 2015 14:20:02 #
Offhand I'd guess feather mites. See this image I took here on Hawaii Island of one during molting but what an ornithologist friend thinks includes the effects of feather mites.
www.flickr.com/photos/captainrbrown/14500888767/in/dateposted/
www.flickr.com/photos/captainrbrown/14500888767/in/dateposted/
Jul 17, 2015 14:36:22 #
Jul 17, 2015 14:43:31 #
Jul 17, 2015 14:47:51 #
stansoper wrote:
Probably the ugliest cardinal I have ever seen! I assume he is molting or possibly some infestation. I have seen him and his mate at my bird feeders several times and he seems healthy. What do you think?
I think he is definitely ugly. Great capture.
Jul 17, 2015 20:06:05 #
stansoper wrote:
Probably the ugliest cardinal I have ever seen! I assume he is molting or possibly some infestation. I have seen him and his mate at my bird feeders several times and he seems healthy. What do you think?
My wife called me to the window this afternoon to show me something and it was a female cardinal that looked like this one. I don't think it was quite as bad as yours.
Jul 17, 2015 23:28:53 #
stansoper wrote:
Almost exactly a year ago, a bird kept flying onto and then off our deck so quickly that I just couldn't identify it. If I stood by the glass doors to the deck, it didn't come, so I sat across the room with a camera in my hands and waited. When he finally did come, I captured him in the memory of my camera. Now that I could study him, I realized that he was a bald cardinal. This is a very long way of saying that I have a picture that looks very much like yours. An Internet search convinced me that he was molting.Probably the ugliest cardinal I have ever seen! I assume he is molting or possibly some infestation. I have seen him and his mate at my bird feeders several times and he seems healthy. What do you think?
Jul 18, 2015 08:59:57 #
Cardinals look dreadful when they're molting.
Give him a few weeks and he will look splendid again.
Pierre
Give him a few weeks and he will look splendid again.
Pierre
Jul 18, 2015 10:56:00 #
stansoper wrote:
Probably the ugliest cardinal I have ever seen! I assume he is molting or possibly some infestation. I have seen him and his mate at my bird feeders several times and he seems healthy. What do you think?
Actually he's kinda cute. I've seen other cardinals like this with the crests missing. On some the crests were down and on the others, missing, maybe molted. Still very interesting!
Jul 18, 2015 13:53:25 #
He's still coming back to the feeders. We are going on a short road trip next week and when I get back we will see how he is doing. I appreciate the lively discussion and comments on the pic.
Jul 18, 2015 17:37:46 #
It's feather mites. Several of our cardinals have those every summer, and it only seems to affect the cardinals. He'll be as beautiful as ever after his fall molt.
stansoper wrote:
Probably the ugliest cardinal I have ever seen! I assume he is molting or possibly some infestation. I have seen him and his mate at my bird feeders several times and he seems healthy. What do you think?
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