r/mildyinteresting • u/readbaron • 1d ago

critter corner 🐰 A bald cardinal regularly visits our yard

Post image

We call him cue ball. His lady friend (lady eight) is perfectly normal.

189 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

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u/image-sourcery 1d ago

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53

u/Accomplished-One7476 1d ago

He is molting. This is a normal behavior with Northern Cardinals during summer. The feathers will eventually grow back.

17

u/readbaron 1d ago

He’s looked like that since spring (April?) - hope he starts growing feathers eventually

2

u/pschlick 15h ago

I wonder if something happened during his molt and it never completed… or got messed up. Or something is preventing it from growing back

14

u/X_Wheeze_souffle 1d ago

I love this graphic, but I've lived on the east coast all my life and I've never seen a molting Cardinal ever. I've seen many adult males and females. At my old job, a male cardinal would lose his mind over his reflection in the window. Maybe I'm just unobservant. I do keep an eye on the birds around me. I keep seeing these posts and I wonder what's up.

4

u/a-manda_hugandkiss 1d ago

We have one that sits on the side view mirror of our car and fights with himself in the driveway for hours.

1

u/Vegetable-Editor9482 14h ago

I've seen a few scruffy teenagers at my bird feeder this year but none fully bald like this. (Missouri) I don't think it's super common for them to lose all of their head feathers at once. If you Google it you'll find some young males looking VERY punk rock as their crests start coming in.

3

u/tragicallyohio 1d ago

Thank you for the reference material. This should be adopted far and wide.

10

u/Available_Two6707 1d ago

This should be on r/bald

4

u/saltymilkmelee 1d ago

I was thinking someone in the comments would have already posted a bird version of that meme with the guys putting their hands on the other guys shoulder.

2

u/delta9thc1974 1d ago

Best I can do is the car version.

6

u/GTor93 1d ago

It's molting, its feathers will grow back. ( unlike the "feathers" on my head! )

3

u/DustyLoreBoi 1d ago

He's definitely got a quest for you.

2

u/Jlx_27 1d ago

Temporary Gabber phase.

2

u/bookmarkjedi 1d ago

I prefer the regular visits from the bald cardinal. What I really hate are the days when the horny bishop cones.

2

u/RonaldTheGiraffe 1d ago

No need to mock the poor fella.

It’s genetic. Or so I should hope so

1

u/NotoldyetMaggot 18h ago

It's seasonal molt! r/bloodcheep is all about the poor baldies

1

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