Today, I'll be showing you a very special female Northern Cardinal that first showed up to the bird feeders on 3/25/2022. Actually, she may have shown up before that date but it is the date that I first saw her. I was a bit shocked and sad when I saw the little Cardinal's head. I wondered what may have happened to her to cause her feathers to go missing on her head. It also appeared that her beak was slightly damaged and I wondered if possibly she was hit by a vehicle.
When I looked closely at her I also wondered if Cardinals (or any bird) could get mange. Mange is a skin disease caused by mites and I know it can cause hair loss on animals so I decided to try to figure out why this beautiful bird came to be in such a state.
It is possible, from what I've read, that the Cardinal could have a type of bird mite that prefers their head feathers and can leave them bald. Bird lice can also cause feather loss. Luckily, most parasites associated with birds prefer birds as hosts and not humans. They can, however, be a nuisance if they invade your house. We did have an instance where that happened years ago when birds built a nest in an air conditioner. Once they abandoned the nest the mites got in by means of the air conditioner. It was such a large amount of mites that we had to fumigate the room and do a lot of vacuuming and washing of bedding and clothing. Ever since then, I don't let any birds nest near the house or in plants that I may have hanging outside. I put skewers in the plants which definitely deters birds from trying to build nests in the plants.
The feather loss could also just be due to molting which is normal for birds to shed old feathers and grow new ones. Molting is possible anytime but seen more during Summer and Fall. Cardinals and Blue Jays are especially known for losing all of their head feathers during a molt.
Another possibility is that the bird may have suffered some kind of trauma.
I think it is possible that she did suffer some kind of trauma due to her beak showing some damage. Maybe a trauma caused her to molt? From what I've read, all of the above possibilities should be temporary. However, head feathers help to protect the birds from sunburn, getting hurt by tree branches and the feathers help protect them from other outside elements.
So far, she has been visiting almost regularly. Four days passed without me seeing her and I got alarmed that something may have happened to her or she died but she eventually showed up. She was most likely visiting during that time but I just didn't see her. I mean, I do take breaks from sitting at my window here ... lol. When I did see her return I took a quick photo through a window. Not a window that gets used but I didn't want to try to open the regular window and have her fly off.
I did wonder if she had a mate as most Northern Cardinals mate for life. I've seen a male and female pair that frequent the bird feeders but this beautiful girl has been solo. That changed (I believe) on 4/24/2022 when I spotted her at the feeders. The following photos are all from the same date.
She flew up into some tree branches and did a strange pose and I thought that she may be doing the pose for a male.
I did see a male fly into the tree and, believe me, I tried to zoom out in time but it all happened so quickly and I only caught part of the mating.
I'm so happy that she found a mate!! I also hope that whatever caused her to lose her head feathers that she recovers soon and new feathers grow in. Even without them though I still think she is a beautiful bird. These are my last couple of photos of her. I've seen her a couple of times since these photos but wasn't able to get photos. I hope to see her soon and get some though. 💖
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Thank you 
All photos and text by me 
