Cardinal Punk

I think most fledglings and juveniles look hilarious. Unlike the proverbial puppies-kitties-bunnies genre (i.e. "fuzzy and cute") to my mind most bird youngsters are deliciously weird in appearance. Hitherto my favorite was the albino buzzard look of the young Red Bellied Woodpecker. But this photo convinced me that a young Northern Cardinal might be weirder still. BirdCam captured this priceless image on Monday morning. J.C. (Junior Cardinal) has perfectly captured the punk rocker spirit with the Mohawk 'do and the splotchy plumage. It took over 55,000 photos before I came up with this jewel. I think it was worth it.