STRANGE LOOKING IMMATURE CARDINAL

This pic was taken October 1, 2006. He resides in Minnesota. Kinda late for babies. There was at least one pair of cardinals that started raising a baby cowbird from their nest. I did get some pics of the cardinals actually feeding that nasty ole cowbird baby! Maybe this one was a second hatch? Anyone have any ideas let us know!!

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Kathryn,

You are correct that it is late for babies, but I don't believe that this is an immature bird. Young cardinals do not have the orange bill that the mature ones have, but rather have dark bills. I suspect that this is simply a wet female.

Good shot, however.

Nice looking shot, its got to grow into that bill

Does a cow bird lay its eggs in other birds nests?

dewmuw wrote in post #2238905
Does a cow bird lay its eggs in other birds nests?

Yes ...

.. and cool shot by the way.
cheers,
jim

calicokat wrote in post #2238781
Nice looking shot, its got to grow into that bill

Not really. The following link shows a shot illustrating the relative size of a cardinal's bill to its head.

https://photography-on-the.net …2&highlight=bal​d+cardinal

I found this shot of a juvenile cardinal for comparison. Note the bill. Your shot is certainly an adult female, given the bill color and the time of year.

Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Here is a picture of a Cardinal chick. This little one was learning to fly and made a quick stop on the dash of my pick up. This shot was taken on 7/19/05 and I agree with pknight, October is too late for babies and yours is probably an wet immature bird or a female.

Thanks everyone for your reply's & knowledge. I guessed it to be an immature because there is no red on the head in any of the pics I took. Never thought about the color of the bill though!!
Kath

That's definitely an adult bird. She looks like she might have feather mites and is losing feathers on her head or in the process of growing them back. However, I'm also in MN and noticed some late babies this year in late September/early October. I know what they sound like so when I first heard them I thought it was strange and I kept an eye out. Sure enough, I saw a fledgling begging and being fed by its parents. They must have had three broods this year, perhaps due to the early arrival of warm weather back in the spring. Or maybe they just started late and had two broods.

Here's a young one from August, note the dark beak: