Extremely rare yellow northern cardinal identified at Michigan backyard birdfeeder- Updated: Jan. 05, 2025, 7:11 a.m.
- |Published: Jan. 04, 2025, 7:45 a.m.
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Michigan is home to a rare yellow-colored northern cardinalSheri McWhirter
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BATH TOWNSHIP, MI – A yellow northern cardinal is a rare thing and Michigan’s got one.
Michiganders Arlene and John McDaniel have been backyard birders for nearly four decades and just before Christmas they noticed something they’d never seen before. There was a yellow northern cardinal near their birdfeeder.
“I couldn’t believe it, you know? And I asked my husband, I said, ‘Come and look at this. Have you seen this?’ And yes, he verified he was seeing it too,” Arlene McDaniel said.
Scientists estimate the male northern cardinal’s genetic mutation that makes it yellow also makes it a 1-in-10 million bird.
The abnormally colored songbird is now a part of the couple’s daily routine at their rural Bath Township home, northeast of Lansing.
“We just sit here in the morning, and we watch,” Arlene McDaniel said.
“He seems to make a regular appearance between like 10 a.m. and noon, and then sometimes he’ll come later in the day. He’s real shy about going on the feeder. He likes to be on the ground or up in the tree,” she said.
John McDaniel said they named the endearing yellow cardinal Donovan in homage to the 1960s-era folk musician. “One of his big hits was a tune called Mellow Yellow,” he said.
The couple said the yellow bird is causing quite a stir online after Arlene posted a few snapshots on a social media site for Michigan-based birders.
Michigan Audubon Conservation Manager Chad Machinski said it’s exciting that a yellow northern cardinal was spotted in the Lansing area. He said they are rare, but not unheard of.
“It goes to show that even birds that we consider ordinary can in fact be extraordinary and that if you don’t take a second to look around, you might not see it,” he said.
However, Machinski cautioned that birdwatchers should be careful not to disturb this kind of special bird.
“I wish more folks would be able to see it, but often with rare birds like this, they can draw a crowd which can then cause a great deal of stress for the bird if people are not respectful,” he said.
Meanwhile, scientists who study this type of bird coloring anomaly are among those interested in this rare bird found in Michigan.
Ornithologist Geoffrey Hill, a professor at Auburn University in Alabama, said when a yellow northern cardinal was spotted in that state six years ago, he was asked how rare this anomaly is and he “kind of just flippantly and quickly said, ‘It’s about a one-in-a-million bird,’ and then that was the headlines.
“Actually, there are about 50 million cardinals in North America, according to estimates from surveys, and there’s probably, at any one time, about five yellow cardinals known somewhere. So, it probably is more like one in 10 million birds.”
Hill said research remains underway into the genetic components of birds with typically red feathers that instead have yellow coloring. Scientists learned it’s connected to lacking proteins, or enzymes, in those unique birds.
“It’s actually two enzymes. It requires a two-step process for a cardinal to be red,” Hill said.
The yellow-instead-of-red phenomenon is caused by what’s called a “knockout mutation” – a missing element in the DNA sequence.
“All it takes is a mistake in the DNA that codes for that protein, and then it’s a fatal mistake, and then the protein doesn’t work, and then they can’t use it. They’re yellow,” Hill said.
Scientists learned that missing one of the two enzymes causes this mutation after studying feathers taken from the first yellow northern cardinal documented in the wild. That bird was “ collected” in 1989 in Baton Rouge by scientists at Louisiana State University, which means the bird was captured and euthanized.
More recently, a rose-breasted grosbeak with yellow instead of red feathers was submitted to the museum at Auburn University. Analysis of feathers from that specimen showed it was likely caused by a similar “knockout mutation,” but of the second of the two required proteins.
Should the McDaniels find any lost yellow feathers from “Donovan” in their backyard, they could help advance this line of scientific study, Hill said.
“If we could get feathers from more yellow cardinals, we could see if in cardinals, it’s always that enzyme one or sometimes two that’s knocked out,” he said.
The ornithologist said there is no research into whether this type of genetic mutation affects the individual bird’s ability to breed, or if the mutation is hereditary.
This rare yellow northern cardinal in mid-Michigan is a different species (Cardinalis cardinalis)than the also rare yellow cardinal (Gubernatrix cristata), a South American bird in the tanager family.
Extremely rare yellow northern cardinal identified at Michigan backyard birdfeeder - mlive.com |
