Animal Kingdom Orlando finch or cardinal (1 Viewer)

[Owene]

Is this possibly a house finch. Wild bird in animal enclosure in disney animal kingdom, august 2023 I had it as northern cardinal at the time as there was definitely one present (and photographed) but it looks different from my other cardinal pictures and the tail looks more finchy

 

[nartreb]

It's most definitely not a house finch -- those are streaky, especially on the belly.

A juvenile northern cardinal is a good match. Those can be blotchy, with a range of colors including the odd orangish/coral we see on the breast and browner tones such as we see on the head, usually with a pale throat as seen here. Notably, juveniles can have all-black bills. Tail looks fine for cardinal to me. If I look hard enough I think I can see a bit of a crest, just over the eye.

In Florida one should keep an open mind about escaped exotics, but nothing looking like this comes to mind. My money's on cardinal.

 

[gsimonel]

I don't know what it is, but it's not a House Finch, and I've never seen a cardinal that color, even a juvenile. When you say "animal enclosure", do you mean "aviary"? I'm not convinced it's a local bird, but there's a lot of birds in Florida that never make it as far north as I live.

 

[Bewick]

Northern Cardinal, seems to be moulting into its adult plumage.

Edit- Pretty good match for the photo displayed on this webpage (Young Northern Cardinal male - FeederWatch)

 

[Owene]

Thanks. Looks like the original Id was right , just a moult that isn’t in the guide. No it wasn’t an aviary. Just a turtle pool I think. Most of the exhibits were unroofed so you had more native than exotic wildlife there. Was great for buterflies