Described as a “one in a million” find, a male yellow-pigmented Northern cardinal was spotted at a backyard feeder!!
Charlie Stephenson of Alabaster, Alabama, an experienced birder, found the rare bird hanging out in her feeder late last month and didn’t know what it was at first, “I thought ‘well there’s a bird I’ve never seen before.’ Then I realized it was a cardinal, and it was a yellow cardinal.”
Geoffrey Hill, a biology professor at Auburn University, believes that the bird “carries a genetic mutation that causes what would normally be brilliant red feathers to be bright yellow instead,” according to an AL.com article. He says, “There are probably a million bird feeding stations in that area so very very roughly, yellow cardinals are a one in a million mutation.”
Wow, so cool!!
via Boing Boing, photo by Jeremy Black
