From a distance, without a close look through binoculars, you might think you're seeing a red bird with a black head — possibly some vagrant tropical rarity far out of its normal range.

Beddall, Barbara G. "RANGE EXPANSION OF THE CARDINAL AND OTHER BIRDS IN THE NORTHEASTERN STATES." THE WILSON BULLETIN, vol. 75, no. 2, 1963. Axelson, Gustave. "30 Years of Project FeederWatch ...

Bird watchers are flocking to a small Alabama city this week to catch a glimpse of a cardinal with a one-in-a-million genetic mutation that causes its bright red feathers to be a striking shade of ...

It first expanded its range to northern Ohio in the 1830s ... The same year schoolchildren voted the cardinal to be our state bird, 1929, redbirds were first released in Hawaii.