002/366: Boids

I'll hazard a guess that it's a juvenile female cardinal
'

The one on the right is a completely stressed out adult cardinal who has gone bald from the stress of raising babies. All of their energy that goes into feeding babies, leaving little if anything to keep mom and dad barely alive. We see that all the time when they are finishing with their second (or third) clutch of the summer.

Cardinals and Blue Jays molt in the late summer. Some of them lose all the feathers on their head at once, while others lose and replace them more randomly. Many people have different theories for why, but no one seems to know for sure.

Here's a picture of a Blue Jay from my front yard from a few weeks ago. It kind of looks like a small blue vulture because of the lack of feathers on the head.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwIhal1_dKQ1QkY3X2Fmam83VW8

And here's one from a few days later (it may even be the same one) with the feathers growing back.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwIhal1_dKQ1cktEM3pvYU5lUlU

Yep, that's a crestless female cardinal. I've got a few balding males around and a lot of youngsters. It's funny how some species can be completely unrecognizable without some of their features. Reminds me of the time my entire high school class couldn't identify a goldfinch in fall plumage.

Ken: nice shot.

We will see cardinals like that for weeks on end with no sign of new feathers coming in.