This female Cardinal recently started to show up at my bird feeder. It appears to be missing the toes on the right foot. I have been wondering if this is a known birth defect or if it lost the toes after it hatched? It's a mystery to me. Does anyone out there know or have an educated guess? You can get a good close-up look by clicking on the photo to view a larger version.
Send this to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. They will be able to answer your questions. Great photo! celticgirl62 (Twitter)
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I sent them an email today. I'll post their response if I hear back from them.
ReplyDeleteReceived an answer from the Cornell Lab today. This is what they had to say:
ReplyDelete"It looks to me like the cardinal escaped some predator who got hold of its foot. This isn't a young bird but rather a female. In the young bird, you wouldn't see such a red bill. Learn more about these beautiful birds at www.allaboutbirds.org "
Hi - thanks for tweeting this to us at the Lab. To the e-mail response I'd add this could also be the result of an infection (now healed). Urban birds often get deformed feet from a variety of infections including avian pox and a Staph-related disease called "bumblefoot." You can reduce the likelihood of birds catching such infections by periodically washing your bird feeder with a 10% bleach solution.
ReplyDeleteIf it's any consolation, it looks like this bird still has use of its hallux, or back toe, and is doing a pretty good job of gripping her perch with it.
Thanks for bringing it to our attention, and good luck to the bird!