An Incredibly Rare Yellow Cardinal Makes an Unexpected Appearance In Alabaster, Alabama

Yellow Cardinal

An incredibly rare yellow cardinal made a surprise appearance in the southern Birmingham suburb of Alabaster, Alabama. This bird is just like other cardinals but is yellow instead of red due to a genetic mutation that interrupted the metabolic process of pigmentation. Resident Charlie Stephenson, who captured beautiful video of the bird, told AL.com that the bird just popped up one day in her backyard and she just started filming.

I thought ‘well there’s a bird I’ve never seen before…Then I realized it was a cardinal, and it was a yellow cardinal. …Every time I watch the bird feeder, I can see him …The cardinals in my back yard typically come in the morning and again in the evening and I can only bird-watch on weekends until the time changes, but on weekends, I’ll sit there and watch for him.

Local photographer Jeremy Black captured a gorgeous still shot of this one-in-a-million cardinal.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.