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Juvenile Northern Cardinal?


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  • Marshal changed the title to Juvenile Northern Cardinal?

I THINK this is a rather drab adult female Cardinal. Juvenile Cardinals have a darker beak that changes to orangey red with maturity. From what I understand, it takes months to transition from the dark beak to the colourful orangey red beak, but I THINK that's how to tell the immature birds from the adults. I am not certain about that so take what I say with a grain of salt.

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Lovely photo.  This looks like a young female to me but so far has no real red to her tail and wings.  However, that seemingly darker brown (maybe the lighting of the photo) may fool us and this might be a young male.  But my thoughts say female.  I hope he/she stays nearby where you can watch him/her change color.

Happy Birding!

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