Pink Cardinal

I went birding yesterday at Kleb Woods Nature Preserve near Houston and had a pretty good day, seeing among other things some Brown-headed Nuthatches, Hermit Thrushes, and other birds as discussed on my blog.  Towards the end of my day I saw a flash of a PINK bird!!!!  I thought initially that it was some sort of escapee that I hadn't seen before.  I tracked it down and found this Northern Cardinal!  The pictures don't do it justice.  It was pink instead of Crimson with a diffuse lightening of the color and the mask was gone too.  When I went to talk to the director, Fred Collins, he said " You saw Pinkie!" He then showed me a picture that he had taken of Pinkie last year while he was being banded.  He then looked closer at my pictures and compared to his pictures and decided that his bird and mine were not the same bird.  It turns out that Pinkie had set up a territory last summer and this bird was likely a second generationpartially Leukocystic Northern Cardinal.  He was christened Pinkie2:

 Now see!  That's what happens when a female Northern Cardinal goes to a party with a bunch of Flamingos.  They all get drunk and the next morning The Cardinal wakes up and wonders where she is.  A few months later you got a whole flock of Pink Cardinals running around.

Wow Thornius!  That was funny.  I didn't even think of big birds that were pink.

Kleb!  My home away from home! 

Pinkie was discovered a year or so ago.  Several times lately he has been seen again--though it now appears that it may have been Pinkie2 that was being seen.

Evidently Pinkie--and Pinkie2--are not typically leucistic.   They are missing only the black color, but not the reds (and browns).

Last November Pinkie's Girl was banded.  Here is a picture from that time.

Maybe this is a sister of Pinkie2!  I noticed that he was also banded.

Very interesting birds. Do they have any webbing between their toes?  lol    I have seen several females with bright red breasts and several that have red faces instead of black.