Although red is the prominent feather color of northern male cardinals, all northern male cardinals don’t boast the same red color shade in their plumage.
Some come with brighter red-colored feathers, while others don’t. So, why are some cardinals redder than others? The answer to the question lies in their pigments: carotenoids. While some cardinals have more carotenoids in their bodies, others lack this substance.
Below, in this article, we have discussed why they lack this essential element and what causes some cardinals to develop redder plumage. Let’s read.
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Learn About The Science Behind The Cardinals’ Red Colored Feathers:
Cardinals and other birdies’ plumage colors come from pigments, aka biochrome pigments. These are natural substances, and birds tend to have three types of biochrome pigments: melanin, porphyrins, and carotenoids.
Melanin is derived from amino acids that living beings, including humans and other animals, receive from their food sources. This substance produces black, brown, gray, and buff colors.
That means when you spot any of the aforementioned colored feathers in a bird, you can rest assured that the color results from melanin.
The following natural compound to talk about is porphyrin which produces brown, green, and magenta colors. Porphyrin can be present in brownish and reddish feathers too.
However, porphyrin is the most unstable element among these three natural substances because it can get destroyed easily by sunlight.
Now let’s discuss the last and most crucial substance, especially for cardinals, which is the carotenoids. It is primarily responsible for producing red, yellow, and orange colors. And cardinals get carotenoids from carotenoid-rich food such as seeds and fruits.
So, cardinals with vibrant and redder plumage indicate that they must have fed heavy-diet during the molting season. In contrast, the duller colored plumage signifies a poor diet.
Hence, the cardinals’ diet is the main reason why some cardinals appear redder than others. If a male cardinal eats wild fruits and seeds, he will have better and brighter feathers than other cardinals that don’t get enough food.
In short, fruits and seeds play a significant role in helping cardinals achieve eye-popping red-colored feathers.
Are Cardinals Redder In Winter?
To some people, cardinals may seem redder in winter than in other seasons. But in reality, cardinals just develop new feathers during this time, and this plumage looks comparatively brighter than old plumage.
FYI, northern cardinals molt and grow new feathers in late summer and early fall, right after the ending of the breeding season. Hence, during autumn, these birdies look duller in color. Besides, some of their unattractive body parts get exposed due to molting.
Cardinals’ this look creates a negative impression on some people, and during winter, when they witness newly molted male cardinals, they get amused to observe cardinals’ bright red colored feathers.
So, these people assume that cardinals get redder in winter when the birds just finished molting.
Some Benefits Male Cardinals Get By Being Redder:
However, let’s briefly discuss these cardinals’ benefits from having brighter red plumage.
They Get Better Territories:
Finding mates is the nature of cardinals and other birds to increase their population and prevent them from extinction. But this mate-finding process isn’t easy for all cardinals.
It requires male cardinals to prove better territorial and protective skills to female birds to attract and convince their partner to copulate. And male cardinals with bright-colored feathers can easily accomplish this job.
Because these birds tend to be healthy and robust and pose excellent foraging ability and territorial skills plus, they are also good at fighting intruders and predators.
Consequently, female cardinals get attracted to bright red colored male cardinals over other duller colored cardinals and choose to mate for life.
They Have Better Reproductive Success:
As you know, bright red-colored male cardinals are healthier than their duller counterparts, and they can attract more female birds easily and can produce more superior offspring.
One study found that the female birds that selected the brighter male cardinals were early breeding females. The pair had better reproductive success than the pairs with duller male cardinals.
Cardinals own various colored plumage, among which red is prevalent. But the shades of red vary from cardinal to cardinal. And why it varies now, you know the reason.
The male cardinals that get proper nutrients from seeds and fruits appear redder than other cardinals. However, that’s all for this article; we hope you have enjoyed reading this one like other content on our blog. Stay connected with us on Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest for updates on recently published articles.