Hey Ruth, Yes, but they metabolize the foods they eat and formulate the pigments. The paper that accompanies these photos is very interesting and explains much about this mutation and how it affects the metabolic activity to end up with a different color.
Linda On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 3:40 PM, <ruth.hy...@verizon.net> wrote: > Cindy and all, > I doubt this is a mutation. Cardinals get their red color from their food, > and maybe this bird just didn't get the right stuff. > Ruth > Rockville Centre, NY > > > > Feb 6, 2011 01:03:43 AM, catbird...@yahoo.com wrote: > > Hi, even though this bird was not found in NYS, I thought it was unusual > enough to be of interest to everyone. Photos of cardinal with a rare yellow > color mutation (reminds me of a yellow tomato) taken last month in Kentucky, > and a link to a scientific paper on a similar, collected bird at the bottom > of the page. > > http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos/yellow_NOCA.htm > > Cindy Wodinsky > Cedarhurst, NY > > -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
