Air Date: Week of December 13, 2024

A yellow Northern Cardinal perches on a fencepost. (Photo: © Jeremy Black, Courtesy of BirdNote ®)

: Cardinals are known for their bright scarlet plumage but turns out some cardinals have yellow feathers instead of the classic red. BirdNote®’s Ariana Remmel explains why.

Transcript

DOERING: Most of the 21 new cardinals Pope Francis elevated to the elite body on December 7 now have the honor of wearing the traditional scarlet vestments. But two in the Dominican order chose to continue to wear simple white robes. And when it comes to cardinals that fly, you might be surprised to learn that they don’t all dress in red, either. Ariana Remmel has this BirdNote.

BirdNote®
Bright Yellow Northern Cardinals
Written by Conor Gearin

[Northern Cardinal song, ML 130905, 0:19-0:22]

REMMEL: Northern Cardinals are known for their iconic red feathers. Males are bright scarlet, and females sport red wing and crest feathers. So if you saw a Northern Cardinal that was lemon-yellow, you might think it was a different species entirely.

In fact, these are Northern Cardinals, but with a genetic mutation. All cardinals ingest yellow pigments in their food. Most cardinals’ bodies change them into red pigments, giving their feathers their signature shade. But just a few cardinals lack this ability — resulting in a bright yellow bird.

[Northern Cardinal song, ML 130905, 2:24-2:27]

Unexpectedly yellow birds occur in other species, too, from House Finches that look like they’ve been dipped in egg yolk, to Red-bellied Woodpeckers with golden-hued head feathers. The condition is called xanthochromism.

[Red-bellied Woodpecker call, ML 105714, 0:40-0:42]

Xanthochromism and other color abnormalities are rare — just a handful in every few million bird sightings. And the causes for these conditions vary. For House Finches, diet alone is probably enough to turn them yellow.

[House Finch song, ML 56843, 0:36-0:39]

Field guides show only a few illustrations for a single species. But part of the fun is finding all the shades of variation in well-known birds.

I’m Ariana Remmel.
###
Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Northern Cardinal ML130905 recorded by Gerrit Vyn, Red-bellied Woodpecker ML105714 Geoffrey A. Keller, House Finch ML56843 recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote November 2024
Narrator: Ariana Remmel
ID# plumage-07-2024-11-15 plumage-07

https://www.birdnote.org/podcasts/birdnote-daily/bright-yellow-northern-cardinals

DOERING: For pictures, flap on over to the Living on Earth website, loe dot org.

 

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