In an earlier post I mentioned that I had seen a group of cardinals with strange coloration. The ones I saw were of mixed colorations and feathering. One of the birds had a black ruff arround the neck. I am in Kansas City just north of the Missouri River.

This seemed strange to me and I'd love to have your expert opinion. I saw a male cardinal mating with a yellow warbler on my fence the other day. Is that normal for cardinals?

This is very much an oriole. Many orioles are yellow, as there are several different species (most are western birds; there are only two eastern oriole species). That brings me to an important point: please always include a location when requesting a bird ID. Many related species overlap in plumage, and a location can help narrow down a species when a limited view is all we're given. With that said, a quick perusal through any birding field guide/website will demonstrate the variability between oriole species and also within a single species. For instance, only an adult breeding male Baltimore Oriole is bright orange with a black head; the female and juveniles are a duller yellowish/goldish orange with similarly colored heads. I believe that your bird is either a female or juvenile Baltimore Oriole, gauging from the wing markings, tail, and color. This post was edited by TMFF on Wed, Sep 17, 14 at 19:08

Hey! This is my first time posting in the bird section. Anyway, I thought I would share a couple pictures I took a couple months ago when the weather was colder here in the Midwest. I see at least 16 cardinals but I think there are closer to 20 (the ones that aren’t bright red are harder to see). I’m a beginner when it comes to this stuff. Probably a little over a year ago (or longer) I found myself in Walmart, stopped, and looking at bird seed. Not only did I find it odd that I was looking at bird seed, but it was confirmation I was getting old HAHAHA… Furthermore, I bought the seed. I placed seeds on my back deck rail and would watch the birds in the morning as I drank my coffee. After about a week I found myself getting more and more birds. Then I started feeding them at lunch time. Before long, I told my husband it was time to buy a bird feeder. I bought the cheap ones but they have held up. Long story short, I started with a bag of seed, which lead to one bird feeder, which eventually lead to several feeders. I don’t use them all during the summer months. I’m also starting to look for higher quality feeders. I bought my first droll yankee feeder the other day at Walmart (finch feeder). I was so excited too. I was at Lowes first but didn’t see any finch feeders I liked. Plus, they were all made in China. So I checked out Walmart and was happy to find an American made feeder. I started seeing the yellow finches within about 3 days of putting the feeder out there. Far away view from my back porch... close up (sorry it's blurry)