Poor little bald cardinal, photographed during an unfortunate, yet temporary, loss of head feathers.
I feel a little guilty for posting such embarrassing photos, but it’s so fascinating. He’s our little Skeksis. I did feel bad for him, though, when another male cardinal showed up next to him in full gorgeous plumage.
Don’t worry, Mr. Cardinal — your feathers will grow back soon!
Hi Meredith,
I’m definitely not an expert, but I had a couple of cardinals that looked just like that a couple of years ago, and learned through our local Wild Bird Center that they had mites. The feathers will grow back, of course…but from what I understand about molting, I think it’s unusual to happen at this time of year. When it happens, feathers are lost a few at a time, not quite as heavily as what you might see with head mites. Anyway, as I said, I’m not an expert on this, but my guess is that the bird has mites.
My photos and the blog post link is here: http://thanksfor2day.blogspot.com/search?q=mites
Check out those RED feathers. Wow! Such a beauty even if he is molting. Maybe you can make a small pillow out of his feathers 😉
Jan, most of what I read said that it could be an irregular molt, a post-breeding molt, or mites. However, when one ornithologist checked a few bald birds for mites, he didn’t find any unusual quantity. So it could be mites, but possibly just something else going on, like our up and down heat temperatures or something. I guess nature still has its mysteries! I’m just glad that it’s likely the bird will get its feathers back. Now I’m off to see your post!
Edit: Hmmmm, if you had that many birds losing so many feathers, it does make one think mites were the problem. So far I’ve only seen the one bird going bald — I’ll cross my fingers that it stays just one! All the other birds look extremely healthy with lovely plumage.
Interesting discussion, especially as I was just telling someone this morning about a bald cardinal that frequents our garden. He looks just like the bird in the photo, and seems to have been bald for about a year (unless there’s more than one bald cardinal in the vicinity). I’ll have to read more about mites … I was thinking the cardinal had a genetic mutation.
Gee, maybe he is a renegade and shaved his head so he would look cool! Great photos!
I can’t help but laugh at Mr. Cardinal! Great shots!
Meredith, I enjoyed your “Dark Crystal” reference. Had not thought of that movie in a long time. It is comforting that the cardinal is still so beautiful with that red beak and body feathers and seems to be acting like his usual self.
Thank you for taking the time to put together your previous caterpillar post. It is wonderful to see the process from beginning to end. I remember raising Monarchs as a child. Fun!
Poor little guy! My first thought when I opened your page was “Oh how sad.” I sure hope his feathers grow back soon.