1:00 AM – Retro-Sunday, featuring the post from one year ago. This post speculates that the feathers of the Cardinal are changing color, possibly due to the change of season or molting. We didn’t see this again, so it was no doubt a trick of the camera. But the molting season is coming up, and there were plenty of changes then.

Saturday -3.18.2017

4:44 AM – I don’t know if it’s due to the arrival of Spring (and maybe the mating season), but I’m seeing some color change in the Cardinals. Also in a Yellow-rumped Warbler. The first video shows a male Cardinal with a patch of yellow on his breast. This could be emphasized by the direct late-afternoon sun, but you can see it faintly when he’s in shadow (his back turned to the light). In the next video the female Cardinal has a much brighter red area on the wings and crest.

The female Cardinal:

This Yellow-rumped Warbler’s head and shoulders are mottled, not the usual solid yellow (ish) color. He looks like he’s been decorated by an abstract expressionist painter.