H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

Once in a while from all the birds that show up at my feeders I see some that are a little odd if compared with the rest of their kind. Most are just different because some their colors. I picked some of them to make my point. As always there’re exceptions to the rules. Nothing wrong with them it just attracts attention because breaks the natural pattern.

A few months ago I saw a Northern Cardinal with no feathers down to the neck, but the body was totally “normal” I thought that it was perhaps hurt or with illness. I decided to research a bit of that on the web and I found out that there is a genetic oddity in that specie and are called Bald Cardinals, not a sickness just perhaps a genetic mutation. They don’t look so pretty but they live a normal life expectancy. I did not keep a picture of it. Made me sad. I should have kept it since is apparently normal.