Woman Takes Photo Of Extremely Rare Yellow Cardinal

Oct 20, 2019 by apost team

The Yellow Cardinal is extremely rare, and experts often refer to it as a "one in a million" find for enthusiasts in the Port St. Lucie area of Florida.

Tracy Workman is an art teacher who lives the Port St. Lucie, FL., and she claims that she has seen the rare yellow cardinal in her front yard twice. She described the scenario of the photograph of the prized bird to USA Today saying that she walked out of her front door and saw the bird perched on her feeder, so she decided to capture it on camera. Workman also sighted the bird in her garden previously on one other occasion in October.

Workman says that she sees a nice variety of bird species at her home, including blue jays, warblers, woodpeckers, and cardinals. She says that these two recent sightings were the only times she has seen yellow cardinals. These rare birds, which normally sport bright red plumage, get their yellow color because of a rare genetic mutation.

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Workman says that there are a lot of songbirds in the neighborhood. She attributes this in part to her neighbor who feeds the birds on a regular basis. 

After having seen some viral postings of a yellow cardinal online in previous years, Mrs. Workman says she knew that her sightings of the birds were special. She captured a lot of high-quality images of the bird with her Canon T51a camera. She explains that it's not best to follow a bird if you want to capture ideal shots, but she said that she had to make sure that she was actually seeing what she hoped was a rare yellow cardinal.

Geoffrey Hill of Auburn University told USA Today the genetic mutation that turns the cardinal's feathers to a brilliant yellow color is a very rare anomaly which makes in "one in a million." 

Since the most recent sighting of the rare bird, Workman has given the cardinal a name. She felt that the obvious name for the male bird was "Sunny." Mrs. Workman has plans to set up a special bird feeder to hopefully attract the bird to her yard again.

Have you spotted any rare birds in your yard? Let us know in the comments, and let your fellow bird enthusiasts know about this special find on social media.