A very observant older gentleman noticed three female cardinals at his birder feeder. Two of them had orange colored bills, the other had a gray-black bill. Why, he wondered, the difference?
Answer: The cardinal with the black bill was a juvenile bird. Young cardinals, both male and female, have coloring similar to the adult female cardinal — an overall, washed out grayish red color. Not the bright red coloring of the adult male. But juvenile cardinals have a black, not orange, bill. The bill color gradually becomes orange as the youngsters grow intro teenagers and adults.
Female Cartdinal
Juvenile Cardinal
Look for black billed cardinals at your feeder
Advertisements
Leave a Reply