As always, your photos are such great shots of these delightful birds. Even with bird guides at hand I find your posts enable me to identify birds more accurately. We have a female cardinal that several weeks ago, maybe even a month, showed up with a bloody shoulder and disheveled head feathers. Her shoulder has healed yet has not grown feathers and the feathers on her head are gone. We feared a predator had tried to capture her; although I now wonder if the damage may have been caused by a window strike. I wonder if that could have bloodied her shoulder. We have been providing seed and suet non-stop to aid in her recovery. Have you encountered a similar incident?
If that Cardinal has been under your care that log it’s a good sign of recovery, most badly hurt birds last very few days after the injure. It seems like she’s healing. I do not know the extent of the damage shoulder but if it is just flesh wound it would definitely better than a broken bone. I have the feeling that this one will be fine.
Most likely that she was trying to escape a predator and she entered a thick bush at fast speed causing the injure but saving her life. It would be very difficult to escape after it was caught by a predator. Hitting windows it can cause death or not. I had one bird hit my kitchen door and it just laid there, I picked it up and held it in my hands, the bird woke up, bit my hand hard and flew right off my hands! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
H.J. Ruiz - Avian101 
As always, your photos are such great shots of these delightful birds. Even with bird guides at hand I find your posts enable me to identify birds more accurately. We have a female cardinal that several weeks ago, maybe even a month, showed up with a bloody shoulder and disheveled head feathers. Her shoulder has healed yet has not grown feathers and the feathers on her head are gone. We feared a predator had tried to capture her; although I now wonder if the damage may have been caused by a window strike. I wonder if that could have bloodied her shoulder. We have been providing seed and suet non-stop to aid in her recovery. Have you encountered a similar incident?
If that Cardinal has been under your care that log it’s a good sign of recovery, most badly hurt birds last very few days after the injure. It seems like she’s healing. I do not know the extent of the damage shoulder but if it is just flesh wound it would definitely better than a broken bone. I have the feeling that this one will be fine.
Most likely that she was trying to escape a predator and she entered a thick bush at fast speed causing the injure but saving her life. It would be very difficult to escape after it was caught by a predator. Hitting windows it can cause death or not. I had one bird hit my kitchen door and it just laid there, I picked it up and held it in my hands, the bird woke up, bit my hand hard and flew right off my hands! Thanks for sharing! 🙂