Will you take a look at this?
A half-male/half-female cardinal that was spotted out in western Illinois. It's an example of a phenomenon biologists call bilateral gynandromorphism.
That's your word of the day folks: "gynandromorphism".
I have no clue what it rhymes with.
Anyway, read all about him-her here:
The scientists studying the bird wrote this:
The bird exhibited the typical bright red color of a male cardinal on the left half of its body, and the dull brownish-gray appearance of a female cardinal on the right half. We observed the bird more than 40 days, mostly in the vicinity of bird feeders. It was never paired with another cardinal, was never heard vocalizing, and was not subjected to any unusual agonistic behaviors from other cardinals. These observations are among the most extensive of any bilateral gynandromorph bird in the wild.
Fascinating.
How weird would it be to see one of these up close?
It would be cooler than the time I saw a brown squirrel with a white tail in Decatur's Central Park:
Out for now......
Matt