H.J. Ruiz – Avian101 – Page 759 – "My Backyard Visitors" – All about birds

Lovely Ladies

Today’s post is about the female Northern Cardinal, a beautiful bird, a good match to the male counterpart.

The Northern Cardinal is a mid-sized songbird. The male averages slightly larger than the female. The adult male is a brilliant crimson red color with a black face mask over the eyes, extending to the upper chest. The color becomes duller and darker on the back and wings.

The female is fawn, with mostly grayish-brown tones and a slight reddish tint on the wings, the crest, and the tail feathers. The face mask of the female is gray to black and is less defined than that of the male. Both sexes possess prominent raised crests and bright coral-colored beaks. The beak is cone-shaped and strong. Young birds, both male and female, show the coloring similar to the adult female until the fall, when they molt and grow adult feathers. They are brown above and red-brown below, with brick-colored crest, forehead, wings, and tail. The legs and feet are a dark pink-brown. The iris of the eye is brown. The plumage color of the males is produced from carotenoid pigments in the diet. Coloration is produced from both red pigments and yellow carotenoid pigments. Northern Cardinal males possess the ability to metabolize carotenoid pigments to create plumage pigmentation of a color different from the ingested pigment. When fed only yellow pigments, males become a pale red color, rather than a yellow.

Next, some photos of these lovely ladies. Enjoy!

Text excerpts © Wikipedia – Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz -Avian101

Tags: birds, nature, Northern Cardinal, photography, photos of birds

Close-Up

Female Red-winged Blackbird

Female Northern Cardinal

Female Brown-headed Cowbird

White-throated Sparrow

Mourning Dove

Red-headed Woodpecker

© HJ Ruiz – Avian101

Tags: birds, Brown-Headed Cowbird, Mourning Dove, nature, Northern Cardinal, photography, photos of birds, Red-headed woodpecker, Red-Winged Blackbird, White-Throated Sparrow

Hurrah for the Ladies!

For the past few days I’ve been working many hours with help of my computer and PS Bridge in order to sort out, categorize and creating new folders of all the photos contained in my auxiliary hard drive plus the ones I already have in my computer’s hard drive. I have an approximate of 25,000 photos if not more. Not all are photos of birds of course.

While I was going through the birds photos it occurred to me that I should also post photos of female birds in the cases of birds that are sexually dimorphic. Which I always do but not featured individually. So I decided to start with this post! Hurrah for the ladies!

Red-winged Blackbird is found in most of North and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and Guatemala, with isolated populations in western El Salvador, northwestern Honduras, and northwestern Costa Rica. It may winter as far north as Pennsylvania and British Columbia, but northern populations are generally migratory, moving south to Mexico and the southern United States. Claims have been made that it is the most abundant and best studied living bird in North America. The Red-winged Blackbird is sexually dimorphic; the male is all black with a red shoulder and yellow wing bar, while the female is a nondescript dark brown. Seeds and insects make up the bulk of the Red-winged Blackbird’s diet.

Next, there are some photos of these female Red-winged Blackbirds. Enjoy!

Tags: birds, nature, photography, photos of birds, Red-Winged Blackbird

Our State Bird

There’s another bird that I see after very wet rainy days, when the ground is soaked and the stream in the creek caries more water. The soil is wet and there are muddy puddles all over. I’m referring to our Georgia State bird, the Brown Thrasher.

The Brown Thrasher is bright reddish-brown above with thin, dark streaks on its buffy underparts. It has a whitish-colored chest with distinguished teardrop-shaped markings on its chest. Its long, rufous tail is rounded with paler corners, and eyes are a brilliant yellow. Its bill is brownish, long, and curves downward. Both male and females are similar in appearance.

The Brown Thrasher is usually an elusive bird, and maintains its evasiveness with low-level flying. When it feels bothered, it usually hides into thickets and gives cackling calls. Thrashers spend most of their time on ground level or near it. For me it has never been a good bird to photograph, it’s difficult to follow on the ground through the camera lens because the bird blends with the leaves and ground quite well.

Next, I have picked a few shots of our State bird for you. Enjoy!