Odd word for an odd bird!
Male Northern Cardinals are known for their vibrant red colors while the female is more subdued with brownish hues and some red edges on her wings.
They are birds commonly seen at area feeders.
So why the different look to this Cardinal spotted in my backyard a couple weeks ago?
My query on a bird Facebook site solved the mystery.
Leucistic is a new word for me. A fellow birder identified this Cardinal as having a partial loss of pigmentation due to a lack of melanin. The embedded link at the start of this paragraph includes a photograph of an American Robin with leucism.
According to an online site, abnormal plumage like this is very rare: 1 in 30,000 birds have leucism or albinism.
The pale plumage is very noticeable when compared to the male Northern Cardinal.
The one above looks different, but I agree with the Facebook bird expert who said the leucistic bird is still uniquely beautiful.
Just as another point of comparison- the female Northern Cardinal.
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