The Yellow Cardinal Explained by an Ornithologist

I explain why yellow cardinals are yellow and why we expect to see and do see yellow variants of essentially all red birds. I also give pointers for how to tell male yellow cardinals from female cardinals, which can also appear quite yellow.
Resources:
Yellow Cardinal Facebook Page:
/ theyellowcardinal
Yellow Cardinal photo clearinghouse:
media/set/?s...
Jeremy Black Photography (Yellow Cardinal photos)
www.JeremyBlackPhotography.com/
where to buy bird coloration book:
www.amazon.com/National-Geogr...
2021 Chicago Tribune story on a yellow cardinal:
www.chicagotribune.com/lifest...

[@TheGenericNoobTGN]

A wild shiny cardinal appeared!

[@fridaynightfunkinfan4448]

Lol

[@jordiejordan8249]

*It's like finding a shiny pokemon*

[@michaelhammond7115]

Was at my mother's house in eastern Oklahoma (she's a birder/feeder) and one afternoon we both spotted this lovely golden yellow cardinal and remarked at how pretty it was and different. Never ever thought about it being rare and ruminated on it for a bit. It came back the next morning and fed on the scattered seed all over her deck for a brief moment then flitted off. Never saw it again and one day while we were visiting with friends and family I looked it up and found out how rare they are. Feel blessed to have seen one at all in the wild now. That's how I got here🤗

[@LVL1Yo-YoGuy]

Wow I never seen a yellow one. Thanks for sharing.

[@JoanClark-xm5er]

There was a yellow cardinal on my feeder today , upstate NY. Gorgeous

[@TeriPrattYates]

I absolutely JUST saw a beautiful yellow cardinal on my land in Canton, Texas. What I didn't have is my phone to grab a picture quickly to prove it. So add Canton, Texas to your sightings in April of 2022. I'll go to the FB group too. Thank you!!

[@melissakay6143]

Thank you for this explanation! Hope I get to someday see a yellow cardinal ❤

[@Amygone456]

I just saw a yellow Cardinal in Illinois. ❤

[@jaymes2ski123]

We are in Peoria and I've been hoping to see a yellow but I know they are very rare. Congratulations on seeing a Yellow!

[@worldsmadness4828]

Just today saw one in Jersey

[@jodyliles9216]

Really Beautiful Cardinal!

[@danielwatson485]

Just saw one yesterday in Homewood, AL. No idea it was a big deal. I'll try and snag a photo for ya

[@Shand8613]

We just saw one in our back yard in eastern Pennsylvania

[@deancorinnehundahl129]

We spotted four yellow (or orange) cardinals together in our backyard in Iowa Falls, Iowa, on January 27, 2022. The four were fluttering around together in a maple tree beside our house.

[@MegaLivingIt]

So pretty. Thanks for the video.🌿

[@BarryB.Benson]

Daily dose is about to make this video have 10s of thousands of views

[@jacksfacts20]

As a fellow scientist I greatly enjoyed your video and learned a few new things!!

[@melissajohouser-rhinehart1699]

There are male and female in our area like RIGHT NOW, here in Cherokee County, SouthCarolina....They arrived at our feeder around the last of February to the first of March. Then Today on the news another male has been hanging around a man's feeder in the Piedmont, South Carolina since the last part of February. Now I'm researching everything I can about them from every angle out there. I'm definitely going to get one of your books too...lol

[@AMO17]

Nature is fascinating. Thanks for the explanation!

[@leslie6757]

Thanks, Dr. Hill for the video! Miss your class!

[@ceudavid7063]

Beautiful yellow Cardinal. Thanks for the video and pictures.

[@elarielcoronel2401]

Woo That’s Amazingly Awesome Red or yellow cardinals are very Beautiful , thank you for sharing !!!

[@linwoodcasey3217]

Thank you. My interest has definitely been beaked.

[@BryWorYT]

Fascinating.

[@BigOHavingFun]

Fantastic video. I came across what I think it’s a yellow cardinal. Seen him twice now in my backyard. I hope to get a picture or video so I can share here. Great video. Thanks for it. FYI I live in Southern California near Disneyland

[@johnDoe-vl1hv]

I’m in Richmond Virginia I spotted one yesterday

[@Swamp_Hound]

As someone who does not have a scientific background ground but loves birds and the sciences. I really appreciate and loved this video

[@WestVirginiaWildlife]

Great video. I find this topic intriguing because a few years ago I participated in research about the effects of carotenoids on painted turtles with Dr. John Steffen at Shepherd University. The study was published last December and is titled, "Carotenoid deprivation and beta-carotene's effects on male and female turtle color". We received aid from Dr. Kevin McGraw with the HPLC analysis of blood samples from the turtles. Nice to know that you taught him as a graduate student. It would be a dream job to make a living as an ornithologist. Right now I'm a graduate student at the University of Florida (in the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences), majoring in ecological restoration. I like to take pictures of birds and right now my gear is the Canon M6 II and Sigma 150-600 lens. Kind regards.

[@eleanorforman7321]

What I want to know is how the red-to-yellow mutation affects reproductive success. Also, whether females with the same mutation might mate with the males, creating more of the rarer birds in a particular area. Is the mutation recessive or dominant?

[@birdingbetter7600]

Those are great questions. Female birds assess the coloration of males when choosing mates. But males also compete for territories and plumage coloration might also play a role in that. All that said, at least a couple of the yellow cardinals that have been watched attracted a female and produced babies. It is extremely unlikely that the mutation that takes out red coloration also changes mating behavior to favor yellow coloration. This mutation likely has occurred in cardinals as long as there have been cardinals (several million years) and yet it never spread so we can presume that overall selection on this trait is negative.

[@ronaldschwigel2286]

i seen a yellow cardinal on march 23rd in milwaukee wisconsin 2021. in my maple tree out in the front yard. i see regular red ones often but a yellow one was a treat to see. this bird looked just like the red one except it had bright yellow as a banana. with the black on the head.

[@redveluver]

Never knew that could exist. That's so cool!

[@ronniehill6142]

There was one on my bird feeder Chesapeake Va, 5-29-22.

[@marezauto719]

I saw one in Pueblo Colorado on 6-7-22

[@christinedavis3417]

When I was a kid we had a yearly set of both red and green cardinals. The green ones were a brilliant bright green and believe it or not could be picked out pretty easily in the trees of our neighborhood. We saw them for many years and I think as I got older we just didn't realize that they were getting rare before we realized they were gone. I found reports on them a few years ago but now I can't find any more information and so I wonder if they went extinct.

[@projetsgroupeactif]

Incredible !

[@bobcukla6017]

I and my wife have seen a true Bright yellow scarlet Tanager in May some years ago, and watched for quite a while.

[@davidjohn6411]

I have a blue cardinal that lives in midtown Anchorage, seen it a lot through the year.

[@Qingeaton]

Yellow Cardinal at the feeder in Hallsville, Mo.

[@cbC-uo2qy]

Just gorgeous 😍

[@lalawhite9688]

I seen one trout fishing near algonquin park

[@petetucker508]

I seen one in Decatur Illinois

[@asianhotboyxeng]

I have never seen a rare yellow cardinal finch bird before but I have seen a rare blue cardinal in my front window.

[@mustang7603]

I have a yellow cardinal that visits my backyard palm tree daily in southern CA

[@tfries72]

Record it

[@WhyteRandy]

We just spotted a yellow cardinal in mantee, Mississippi on 30 April2022

[@RAERAE-rj8gp]

Spotted yellow female cardinal with 2 red males in Kelso, TN

[@elizabethgardner1361]

I have a yellow cardinal visiting my bird feeder in Lakeland, FL. It is beautiful! I have a question: how does the missing enzyme manifest in a female cardinal?

[@spideraxis]

Very pretty. I've only seen red cardinals. My home is near a wildlife refuge so I see red cardinals.

[@birdingbetter7600]

I've been birding for 40 years and I've only seen red cardinals. It is a one in a million.

[@spideraxis]

@@birdingbetter7600 I'd love to see one.

[@ignatiouswheatley8266]

Lol yellow red n brown cardinals

[@mattfouts4686]

I have one in wake forest nc, it moved in above my red pair. Female yellow. At first the male was aggressive towards her, now they all eat together.

[@MarilynMclane]

I just saw a yellow cardinal in my Minnesota yard last Friday. May 3rd,2024

[@naurrr]

have you ever collaborated with LesleytheBirdNerd? I feel like your channels have a lot of crossover!

[@birdingbetter7600]

No. I'll take a look at her channel.

[@OceanLife772]

Husband saw one in SE Florida east of Port Saint Lucy in late 2022. Does this mean they have a hard time attracting a female? I thought Females are attracted to males by their red color?

[@Rhetzelle]

it's not yellow it's shiny Cardinal

[@kirbywaite1586]

Why would birds need to convert yellow to red? I'm curious as to what evolutionary force is at work there. Why wouldn't the bird simply be naturally yellow? An acquired physical trait is very intriguing. Thanks for the beautiful video.

[@birdingbetter7600]

That is an excellent question. My grad student, Ryan Weaver, and I recently published a journal article that presents data that the link between individual condition and coloration is strongest when there is metabolic conversion of carotenoids. The implications are that female choice drove the evolution of the conversion of yellow to red to get better information about prospective mates.

[@kirbywaite1586]

@@birdingbetter7600 Fascinating. Thank you for your answer.

[@gardomusic4911]

I've seen it first hand when i was in murfreesboro Tennessee, together with red cardinals, i thought the yellow ones are female, but then i realize females are not as gorgeous as the reds and yellows. They are amazing

[@figarofigaro3429]

I saw one before in South Florida thought I was hallucinating.

[@BeckVMH]

Perhaps I missed it in the video, but what impact is there on these yellow variations given color is so important for the male cardinals? It would seem reasonable that the biggest issue would be these are rejected by females.

[@jordiejordan8249]

*Daily Dose Of Internet brought me here*

[@Joshuaki221]

Same lol

[@reyphobic]

Sameee

[@igorfargadoo]

Great video... Somebody will do some gene editing and voila, everybody's got a yellow cardinal in their backyard!

[@aleximm7796]

i seen one in my backyard and i have a picture :)

[@thegrayjedijesse9106]

2:46 I live there and I swear that’s the one i just saw and my papa loved bird watching and he died today and it looked at me and then flew away I think he was my papa as a bird so my died papa visited me 😌

[@tropicalmilk771]

I saw a yellows cardinal once

[@burgerfrog512]

I found one on a sunflower

[@orangecat9559]

what if it's not as rare and people just didn't know it's extremely difficult to come across one and didn't take photos of it

[@birdingbetter7600]

That was no doubt true until 2018 when the yellow cardinal became a news sensation. Many (maybe most) feeder watchers now know to be on the lookout for yellow male cardinals.

[@YTeradicant]

@@birdingbetter7600 why male cardinals?

[@birdingbetter7600]

@howsittastes Great that you got video of your yellow cardinal. At this point, I doubt it has any potential to earn money. It is valuable to create more birding excitement. I suggest that you share the video on the Yellow Cardinal facebook page.

[@birdingbetter7600]

I think there is no doubt that it is very rare. I've been looking at wild cardinals for 50 years and I've never run across one. I actually do not know of any birder who has detected one while birding.

[@jtidema]

@@YTeradicant He's saying that the yellow is always a male. Males are usually red, and in some cases the red doesn't show in the feather pigment, it shows as yellow. Females are always that brownish with just a bit of color.

[@binkydonna]

Are Cardinals Finches?

[@austinbevis4266]

Must not be an advantageous trait if it hasn’t spread much

[@justinmurupel5748]

came here from your daily dose of internet

[@kyleyjo4258]

You sound like Steve Carell

[@MrReviewer]

Daily dose of iiiii

[@ambush2291]

But yellow cardinal are endemic of southern south america. Where they population its almost in the edge of extintion. Probabbly someone just bought illegaly (their principal threat) one or more in southamerica and then went to USA where one bird scaped from its cage and went to the backyard of the man on the video. It would be cool to talk about the danger that this birds are suffering. Instead of thinking on them like a rare pokémon that its one thing i'm seeing all through internet... u.u

[@vivaciousjo]

These are two different birds. The Northern Cardinal in this video, Cardinalis cardinalis, is not the same as the endangered species of South America, Gubernatrix cristata.