An extremely rare sight left bird watching enthusiasts baffled. It was an amazing yellow cardinal spotted in Alabama! The unusual bird, that occurs one in a million, according to experts, has repeatedly visited the backyard of a woman from Alabaster, Alabama. The lady, named Charlie Stephenson, initially spotted the rare cardinal during winter, while feasting at her backyard feeder.
“I thought ‘well there’s a bird I’ve never seen before,” Stephenson said. “Then I realized it was a cardinal, and it was a yellow cardinal.”
After she witnessed the rare sight, Stephenson alerted her friend Jeremy Black, who’s a wildlife photographer. He immediately found his way into Stephenson’s backyard attempting to capture it on camera. After nearly five hours of waiting, the yellow cardinal got back and Jeremy was finally able to get some great shots of the rare bird.
While cardinals are bright red, the yellow plumage is due to a rare genetic condition, claims Geoffrey Hill – biology professor at the Auburn University. He also said this individual is an adult male.
“I’ve been birdwatching in the range of cardinals for 40 years and I’ve never seen a yellow bird in the wild,” professor Hill said. “I would estimate that in any given year there are two or three yellow cardinals at backyard feeding stations somewhere in the U.S. or Canada. There are probably a million bird feeding stations in that area so very very roughly, yellow cardinals are a one in a million mutation.”
You can watch the “one in a million” yellow cardinal, here: