Q: I watched a beautiful male cardinal feeding an all-brown bird on the roof of my garage. Why would it feed another species? A: That’s a great observation and it indicates how different young ...

Observe a molting male cardinal. First comes the molt of head feathers, leaving the bird with a grayish, bare-headed appearance.

Songbirds, like this female northern cardinal, molt their feathers in late summer. Their new coat of feathers is called basic plumage (aka non-breeding plumage.) Photo Credit: Kathy Adams Clark ...

With its bright red plumage, flamboyant crest and cheery song, the northern cardinal is one of my favorite backyard birds. But the bird currently sitting at my feeder does little ...

This cardinal, seen in Monroeville on Aug. 8, appears to be missing his head plumage. It is part of the molting process that birds undergo this time of year.

Birds tend to become secretive while molting, quietly hiding in the vegetation, explained the Irvine-based author. “Even mockingbirds typically go very quiet by July.

Fossilized feathers of an extinct bird show it molted differently than modern birds. The prehistoric bird lost its feathers all at once, while many modern birds molt in waves. Regrowing feathers ...

They shed their feathers and grow new ones. This molting process occasionally produces a bald headed cardinal when a bird loses all its head feathers at the same time." ...

Bright red cardinals are commonly part of Christmas cards, holiday decor and the general spirit of wintertime. This bird, called the Northern Cardinal, is North Carolina’s state bird (six other ...

LIFESTYLE Cardinals as 'messengers from heaven': What does it mean when you see this beautiful red bird? Red-hued bird given name 'cardinal' after color and crest reminded early settlers of faith ...