Long live the Boulder cardinal!

[Ted Floyd]

Hello, Birders.

This President's Day morning, Feb. 16, Andrew Floyd and I were trudging through the deep and drifted snow in the North Boulder foothills, when what should appear at the tippy top of a tall tree but a gloriously crimson adult male Northern Cardinal. It was in fact the first bird we saw. It was practically the only bird we saw.

This bird is surely the individual that has been present in and around Hawthorne Gulch for more than two years now. We phoned Thomas Heinrich, Keeper of the Cardinal, and he joined us to gawk at the bird. It just stayed there the whole time, on its high perch, like the star atop a Christmas tree.

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado

[Ted Floyd]

Did anyone see this one coming??--a proposal to split the Northern Cardinal into six (6) species! This is gonna be more fun than crossbills...

http://checklist.aou.org/nacc/proposals/PDF/2015-B.pdf

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado