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Monday, May 18, 2009

A Cardinal Fledgling?

Do Northern cardinal fledglings really look like this? I would have known this was a fledgling even without the parents nearby. It's persistent peepish rattling was of the cannot-be-ignored variety. But if I had seen him alone, I never would have guessed this was a juvenile cardinal. Wouldn't you expect olive or brownish feathers? [Don't miss the last paragraph of this post. It explains this unexpected occurrence!]
Me too. But I took a jog around the internet (where else?) and found some images that looked just like this one. Some of the juveniles had rust feathers but there were also these gray little guys. (The above images were taken through the window.)
And here's proud papa. He was singing in these first two images but I was a second or two too late to capture it. He's perched in the spot where many birds pause to look around before advancing to feed.
Both he and the female have been coming to the plate for suet and sunflower seeds and today I happened to hear the juvenile and looked out to see him sitting under the plate being fed.

The plate is pictured here with a blue jay patron.
And below papa is back to hunting up meals for that fledgling.
Busy time of year!
Note: Jeff Gordon to the rescue again. Jeff is a very experienced bird field guide expert and presenter from Delaware. This is not the first time Jeff's seen something amiss in the bird ID department on my blog. I'm grateful he noticed this one and straightened out who this strange looking fledgling actually belongs to. Read Jeff's note in the comment section. The fledgling pictured above is not a cardinal at all, but a very hungry cowbird fledgling, a species that parasitizes other bird's nests, that is, removes the other bird's egg and lays their own in its place. Sigh. Thanks Jeff...
Take in some interesting field experiences, fun humor and beautiful images at Jeffery A Gordon's blog.
Linked to Bird Photography Weekly #38 and Birdfreak. com to promote the conservation of our world's birds.

10 comments:

  1. Yeah ..who would have known..if you didnt see the parents..looks like catbird chicks..
    Very cute!

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  2. Hey Vickie!

    Gorgeous shots of the proud papa. Unfortunately, your cardinals appear to be victims of cowbird parasitism, accounting for the discrepancy in expected and observed appearance in the baby. It's interesting that you found other images online that matched yours...maybe some or all of those are cowbirds, too?

    We lost a whole brood of Carolina Wrens last year to cowbirds. But just yesterday, I was thrilled to see them (or wrens occupying the same territory) on the porch with 3 or 4 honest to goodness baby wrens. So perhaps your Cardinals will have better luck next time...maybe they'll even squeeze in another brood this year.

    Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

    Jeff

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  3. Are cowbirds like our cuckoos here in Australia.

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  4. ...what a total sweetie!!!! I just read Jeff's comment. Wow...learn something new every day. Even if it is a baby Cowbird...he is sweet. And the papa is beautiful -- sometimes I'm just a bit partial to the Reds! ;-)

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  5. Such an interesting post! Cowbirds, and cuckoos of all kind just make life difficult for the birder that is trying to learn the juveniles!

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  6. What a bummer about the changeling. I've known people like that.
    I got a shot of a dove fledgling that was resting on a shelf on my back patio. It was his first trip out of the nest. No mistaking his identity though. It looks like your friend Jeff has a great blog...thanks for the link.

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  7. I thought Jeff Gordon drove a race car, some birds are just so difficult to identify. Looking different in the winter than summer and then the young not looking at all like the adults, like you I just try my best and hope I am right.

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  8. Great post Vickie. I think we all have trouble IDing juvenile birds of many different species.

    Beautiful captures of the Cardinals and the Blue Jay.

    Thanks for the lesson.

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  9. It is amazing how different juveniles can be in their looks to the parent birds. The juv. certainly makes a good one for ID quizz!

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  10. I just stumbled onto this image today while looking for images of juv. Northern Cardinals. As my good friend Jeff Gordon noted, this is a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird.

    I am the content editor for an online birding website. In addition to our online social field guide, we our website features an online journal, where we publish articles on lots of different bird topics. We recently featured a piece on the identification problems that folks encounter when they come upon juv. Brown-headed Cowbirds, which are invariably being fed by adults of some other species. You can check out Mark Szantyr's great piece at: http://www.birdfellow.com/journal/2011/08/24/a_picture_is_worth_a_thousand_birds

    Dave Irons
    Content Editor www.birdfellow.com

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