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Orange Cardinal? (1 Viewer)

This birds diet most likely is lacking the caroteniods needed for the deeper reds. I know from my years of breeding birds that Cardinals will become a light straw color if they lack the right food. If this bird eats the right foods during it's molt, it will regain the red coloring.
 
I also saw a golden/salmon colored cardinal looking bird on a tree in my yard in NC yesterday. It looked very fat and well fed and definitely not a young bird. The color was beautiful but odd. I cannot find a picture of this bird and I did not have a camera. Can anyone shed light on this bird?
 
Hi y'all...

Is this unusual? This the first time I've seen an orange northern cardinal. I was wondering if this was normal or is there something wrong with this little guy.

bamabluebird, I just joined this site looking for the same answer as you. In your pictures, your lil guy looks like he's COPPER colored. Do you believe he is more copper, than salmon/orange, in color?

We, too, have had an orange/salmon colored male cardinal visiting our feeders for the past two weeks. He is so bright, that he immediately caught my attention. His color is quite vibrant and stands out prominently. I wish I could get a good picture of him, however, I only have the camera on my phone available, and so I can't zoom in close. We have plenty of red males, but this is the first time I've ever seen one that is salmon/orange in color. Thinking that perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me, I asked my daughter to come and take a look. She, too, says it's orange.

I see you live in Prattville, AL. How close to the Florida Panhandle is that? I'm about 45 minutes (by car) to the Florida/Alabama border. I'm wondering if the orange cardinal I'm seeing is the same one you saw, or if the Polar Vortex our nation experienced this winter, has something to do with him being so far south. ??? I've looked in all my birding books and have yet to find ANY mention of a salmon/orange colored cardinal. He seems to be a hybrid of some sort.

Has anyone else come across Cardinals with a color variant? Are there any ornithologists here who can shed some light on this subject?

I'm so happy to have found this forum, and am looking forward to being an active participant. :)
 
Hi, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined in.

I guess that it is not the same bird (partly since the other post was more than 5 years ago). It seems that with cardinals the color is affected by what they eat. Now maybe the weird winter weather has made it hard for your local bird to get "three squares" a day, and so he is not so red.... Does he seem fairly healthy? It may be that he will become redder again as he molts into new feathers - if he's eating the right (red-producing) food.

Anyway, fun to notice some variation in birds, so this one will be easily identifiable for you.
 
Hi birdluvr, Welcome to BF.
I see a burnt orange one here in Hualtulco, Mexico every other day or so. There are some that are very red too. When I saw the first Cardinal I was really taken aback. It seemed so strange to see this bird here in a dry thorn forest. We don't have them in my home state of California and I always thought of them in terms of snowy scenes on Christmas cards. When I looked them up in my Sibley's he says they are common in brushy desert habitat. You learn something new everyday. If they can hang out here, I don't see why they don't come to California. I would love to have them in my yard (in any hue).
Sue
 
Welcome at BF, birdluvr!

I assume that blamabluebird will not response because he/she´s not longer active.
From bamabluebirds public profil:
Last Activity: Wednesday 17th December 2008
Your bird isn´t a hybrid of any kind, please read post#21 for the explanation.
I can only agree with that; check out which vegetables, berries and fruits have lot of carotins and think about if your cardinal is able to feed of them.
And as Gretchen explained if he´s moulting he will get a deeper red when he gets enough carotinoids, but that´s after the breeding season.
And it´s important that he will find the source early enough, when he has already small new feathers it´s too late.
Canary breeders and zoos worldwide are suppporting their red color canaries/flamingos and other red birds too, giving them water dissolved Canthaxanthin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canthaxanthin) on a daily routine.

All the best,
Roman
 
Rust/orange cardinal

Hello, I just saw one of these rust/orange male cardinals in my backyard in Saratoga County, NY. I did a double take and had to get out the binoculars. It was in the yard at the same time as a female cardinal and was definitely not a female. Oddly enough, at the same time, I had a purple finch whose "purple" was as bright red as a normal male cardinal, and the rust colored male cardinal was hanging out with other birds of the same rust color but not cardinals (to further the mystery, since cardinals tend to hang by themselves). So.... Quite an interesting evening! I wish I'd known how rare it was and taken a picture! I hope he comes back!:cat:
 
Salmon/Pink Cardinal

I'd like to inquire as to my sighting of the beautiful Salmon/Pink Cardinal, can anyone tell me more about them?
 

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