Sunday, July 3, 2011

Adolescent Identity Crisis

Juvenile cardinal among a host of sparrows
Yesterday morning and then through out the day we were setting records for the numbers of birds that would perch on the seed feeder at a time. Typically, waves of one kind or another species would come in and feed like a food frenzy was going on - mixtures of species were more rare than groups of the same kind. The order of things were disrupted when a more dominant outlaw species would swoop in and land, displacing the smaller others who were already settled in to feast. What was strange - out of place - was how this juvenile female Northern Cardinal was hanging out with a host of House Sparrows - we had noticed her for a couple of days hanging around the yard alone. Its immaturity was notable by her beak color that was not yet solid orange, and the under-developed feather color. I guess the youngster is still trying to figure out her place in life - When will my beak color finish development? - Will the other cardinals pay attention to me? .....

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