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mikedelaney
12-07-2008, 07:10 PM
i have a picture i would like to upload of a female?? cardinal. i saw it last year and photoed it today. i'm wondering if it is a type or category that is known or if i have a completely strange bird.
canon 40D i use standard picture style
sigma 50-500mm.
f 6.3
shutter: i'd have to look it up and might get timedout.
Iso800
i did nothing to the picture except crop it.

John Chardine
12-07-2008, 10:25 PM
Hi Mike- Not knowing all the minute field marks of this species, it seems like a normal female cardinal to me. Could you explain what you think is strange about the bird.

Judd Patterson
12-07-2008, 10:31 PM
I have to agree with John...I don't see anything strange with this adult female Northern Cardinal.

mikedelaney
12-08-2008, 02:20 PM
gee guys, i know i've seen a lot of cardinals and this is the first i've seen with such blue markings and dark body. it is much more beautiful than any beautiful female i've ever seen!!
if you say you've seen these markings in the field then i will believe you've seen them, but they are far from typical.
mike

John Chardine
12-08-2008, 04:37 PM
Mike- It is possible that this individual does not represent the "norm" for a female Cardinal, whatever that is. Individuals vary in every attribute to a greater or lesser extent both within and between geographic areas, and a lot of the time we are sublimely unaware of this variation. We recognise it when we see a bird "off the scale". In your experience this bird is "off the scale" and it may be, in relation to other female cardinals in your area (this is why I think it is important to record the location and date with the EXIF data for BPN posts).

In this case, the bird looks somewhat darker than the drawing in Sibley- a colour he describes as "warm brown". In his drawing, the primaries and secondaries are edged with grey that seems to have a bluish tinge. I can't say I remember seeing this in the field per se but as mentioned I don't tend to remember every minute detail of colouration and patterning. You may have a bird from a different area where the birds tend to be a bit darker and a bit bluer than where you are.

One question- did you recognise the bird to be different before you made the image or after? I ask this only to say that lighting can play a big role in how birds look in photographs. Gulls are a classic example of this.

Judd Patterson
12-08-2008, 06:38 PM
John makes some really good observations. Sometimes there is a lot more regional variety than most of us can appreciate. I think female cardinals look overall darker in Florida than they did back home in Kansas. I can also vouch for how much lighting can effect these birds. I had some recognizable females at my feeder in Kansas that would look very different on a sunny vs. cloudy vs. heavy overcast day...I also noticed how much darker the females look from the backside compared to the more common view of the lighter breast/stomach feathers. Thanks for sharing this image with us Mike!

Julie Kenward
12-08-2008, 06:55 PM
I have to agree with Judd. I had a good twelve cardinals at my feeders last night here in Missouri and at least six were females. They NEVER look the same to me. I've seen some that even looked half male/half female because they had so much more red in them than the normal female. I've had some, too, that if I hadn't seen the spiked feathers on the top notch I wouldn't have even guessed them to be cardinals. The one in your photo looks like my average female. ???