Yellow Cardinals Are Incredibly Rare, But One Visits This Woman's Backyard Daily

A very rare bird has made its home near an Alabama woman’s backyard, AL.com reported. The yellow cardinal is extremely rare because a genetic mutation is what gives it the yellow coloring instead of the usual red.

Professor Geoffrey Hill of Auburn University confirmed that the bird is the same species as a regular red cardinal. The bright yellow bird showed up in Charlie Stephenson’s backyard in late January and usually appears at her bird feeder at least once a day, if not twice, she told AL.com.

Northern cardinals are typically bright and vibrant red and have a specific shape including long tails and large crests at the top of their heads. These defining features make them fairly easy to identify, but when the color is completely off it can throw even seasoned birdwatchers for a loop.

A study, published in 2003 that Hill was a co-author on, explored the mutation that could have caused the color change in the birds. What the authors found is that the carotenoid pigments in the feathers of the red birds differed from those that appeared in the birds with yellow feathers. The change might occur due to the diet of the birds but because there are so few yellow cardinals, there isn’t enough research to be sure what the cause of the mutation is.

The yellow mutation happens in about one in every one million of the birds, Hill told AL.com. This means Stephenson’s sighting is quite rare. She didn’t want to reveal her address out of fear that she would end up flocked by avid bird watchers eager to see the bright yellow sight.

She did allow her friend, Jeremy Black, a professional photographer, to come to her yard to photograph the bird. It took five hours but he eventually got the photo, AL.com reported. Black posted the photos to Twitter.