Bold Cardinal

Wow - this is really rare. One of two things are happening here:

1. This cardinal has feather mites that ate the feathers and caused the bird to go bald (they'll grow back) - birds are unable to preen themselves on the head which allows for mites to ea away up there. **The mites are mostly harmless to the bird, so he's really ok. In a few weeks, he'll molt-in a new set of feathers and will no longer will be bald.

2. I also read a few articles about songbirds that simply molt like this. While they USUALLY only drop a few feathers at a time (they ned them to fly, so don't drop them all at once, of course), some cardinals (and blue jays) will dump their whole head like this at once. No one really knows why, or why it's so rare. But, they'll grow back in over a few weeks' time.

Nice catch!