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.