After having spent 20-23 days in the nest as eggs and nestlings, young Northern Cardinals are fledging and beginning to follow their parents into your yard. Both mom or dad will feed the young, so watch for a tan bird tailing an adult cardinal.
All young cardinals - male and female alike - will have a crest (sometimes not fully filled in) and will have the coloration of an adult female: light tan with some reddish shades. But to pick out a young bird, check out the beak. Instead of the bright orange beak both adults flash, a young cardinal's beak will be dark. Sometimes very dark, almost black, and sometimes lighter and tannish. But it is not orange!
Image by WBU customer Mary Foss Bullard
Enjoy this differentiation while you can. Cardinals molt in later summer or early fall, and by winter, the juvenile males will look just like dad with a beautiful red coat of feathers, and all their beaks, young and old, male and female, will be orange.
Thanks for bringing that up Lou. Maybe I should do a separate post!
Posted by: The Zen Birdfeeder | June 26, 2015 at 11:38 AM
Nancy, you might mention that it is likely that a male or female adult cardinal may be feeding a gray bird which is a young cowbird. I see this every year in my yard along with the young cardinals. I am in Burlington county NJ.
Lou
Posted by: Lou | June 26, 2015 at 11:36 AM