two days after the post, a new male came to the feeders, I'm not sure, it may be the one earlier I though was a female, but later in the day He was perched on top of the post the holds the feeders, and he turn slightly showing red coming from the back of the left side of his neck an area about 1/8" wide by a 1/2" to 3/4", I'm assuming he a juvenile, but he has taken control, all the other males are still around but he runs them off just like he does the females, today he made friends with a female, it worries me, is it not a little late for mating. The bird feeders are all setup close to he end of the trailer, no bird is farther than 3 foot from the window, so far the birds have had no problem with the closeness, other than the newest hummer will get cranky every now and then, and tries to chase the cardinals that come to the feeders, he never succeeds but it doesn't stop him from trying. I changed the feeders around yesterday trying to get ants in tack, and I had a few surprises as the other birds would go to a hummer feeder then look puzzled, what was cute was my favorite of the bird, birds was a titmouse that landed on the hummer feeder and scooted all the way around the feeder looking for the food, then started picking the container that holds the sugar mixture, he found his food foot above his head. I did try an get some video but because of the speed and the lack of shutter speed, all i got was a lot of green and a blur of a bird here and there. It is so amazing how unbelievably our eyes are! I'm not sure an automated camera can keep up with the wide area of movement that the hummers cover even in close areas.

Ok, I am doing some reseach on the issue. I did find a neat web page which shows us some pics of other similarly affected Cardinals and discusses causes of baldness. Check it out here: http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek030701.html and this: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/nature/nw98/baldbirds.html and this: http://www.birdchick.com/wp/2007/08/bald-cardinals-and-other-bald-birds/ "The thing that I find interesting is that the cardinal that I shot had white skin not dark skin." I wasn't able to find anything which specifically stated the reason why the skin would be white instead of dark, but this is obviously something which isn't so uncommon. I'll keep looking when I get time, and if I find anything else re the white skin, I will come back and post it for you. :o)

How wonderful , I would definatly send this story and photos to Cornell http://www.nestwatch.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=577 , It would be a great story to put on the Cornell nestwatch site. May even want to send to Birds and Blooms mag, they love these stories and we are talking about an unusual nesting in flowers!! I think you get some kind of compensation if B&B uses your story. www.birdsandblooms.com keep us up dated!

I don't think so - but you could post it to youtube and post the link here.