[Ontbirds]orange N. Cardinal on St. Thomas CBC

[Dave Martin]

Today (January 26) in our search area of the St Thomas CBC we saw a 
Northern Cardinal that was as bright orange as a male Baltimore 
Oriole.  We have seen a couple of orange variant Scarlet Tanagers and 
male "Orange"-breasted Grosbeaks in 40 years of birding but no Orange 
Cardinals until today.

The "orange variant" of the Northern Cardinal is not unheard of, but 
apparently quite rare.  A Google search with the phrase "orange 
variant Northern Cardinal" turned up ~6000 references [mostly 
duplicates] including a published reference in NA Bird Bander to an 
orange variant cardinal caught at banding station in the US. Also of 
interest was a journal that had a photo of a "yellow variant" 
cardinal.  Apparently, cardinals use 4 "different" red carotenoids 
that combined produce the bright red. Another article describes a 
dietary experiment on  goldfinches and cardinals that cause 
goldfinches to "redden" and cardinals to "yellow".

This Northern Orange [aka Northern Cardinal] was found in the 
vicinity of Springwater Conservation Area which is about 10 km 
southwest of Aylmer in central Elgin County.

 From the intersection of Springwater Line and Southdale Line at 
Springwater CA drive west on Southdale Line about 1 km to Hobson 
Line. Just past the intersection Southdale descends a steep hill into 
the Catfish Creek floodplain, so park at the top or drive to the 
bottom to park along the side of the road. About 1/2 way down the 
hill there is a deep ravine on the north side. The bird was with a 
flock of cardinals in this ravine when first seen but flew across the 
road into a brushy lowland. The house at the top of the hill about 50 
metres to the east has good feeders.  It looks like the cardinals 
come into the feeders via this ravine. It shouldn't be too hard to 
get a look at or photo of this bird as it moves to and from those 
feeders if you have some patience.

Dave Martin, Linda Wladarski, Ross Snider
dave.martin at explornet.com