Genetics might not be the only thing to blame for this odd-looking cardinal. (Related: " Why These Giraffes Are Completely White.")īut a rare mutation residing in the genes of the cardinal in question might be blocking that color-changing pathway, diluting the bird's red pigment to yellow. Although wild songbirds typically eat yellow-pigmented foods, they can transform that color into warm, red feathers. Songbirds get their color from yellow, orange, and red pigments called carotenoids found in their food, like sweet potatoes and carrots. He's been trying to get more photos ever since, visiting her yard daily for the last week or so. "It kind of took my breath away a little bit."īlack could only manage two or three shots before a squirrel startled the bird and it flitted away again. "As soon as it landed, I was starstruck," Black says. Then, a few hours later, the elusive songbird landed in her neighbor's yard. On February 17, Black spent five hours scouring Stephenson's backyard with his camera and a pair of binoculars-but after seeing only red cardinals, he withdrew to Stephenson's screened-in porch. Kaohsiung, Taiwan Photograph by Boris S., National Geographic Your Shot (Related: " Extremely Rare Albino Orangutan Found in Indonesia.")īlack-browed Barbet. The unusually yellow cardinal is not to be confused with the yellow cardinal, an endangered South American species with black and white markings and the occasional green tinge. In his 40 years of cardinal birdwatching, Hill has never seen a yellow bird like this in the wild. (Related: " Why Yellow Birds Mysteriously Turn Red.")īut this golden visitor is neither: it's a male northern cardinal with a "one in a million" genetic mutation that made its red feathers yellow, according to Geoffrey Hill, a bird curator at Auburn University in Alabama. Stephenson told AL.com she has seen albino and leucistic birds, the latter being animals that are mostly white but can produce some pigment. So, she took a photo with her iPhone and posted it on Facebook. But with its mustard-color coat, this flier was different. A strange species of unfamiliar yellow bird was pecking at her hanging birdfeeder.Īs a seasoned birdwatcher, Stephenson had seen scores of cardinals in the past. Looking out at her quaint Alabama backyard in late January, Charlie Stephenson noticed something unusual.
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