Ugly bird!

A few weeks ago, a friend told me about seeing a bald cardinal and sent me a link about them from the internet.  Apparently it's not uncommon.  There were several photos and descriptions and people guessing why the bird was bald.  The two suggested reasons were 1) molting; and 2) lice, the latter of which seems to be the most likely.  The reason for the feathers being missing only on the head is that birds can preen their feathers on the rest of their body to clean out the lice, but not the head.  Hmmmm.  Whatever. 

Only a few days after I heard about this, I noticed a strange looking bird at my feeders and jumped up from my chair for a closer look.  And guess what it was?  It was a female cardinal with an ugly bald head.  It took me about a month to get a decent picture.  I do believe this is the shyest bird in the neighborhood... and rightly so :)  Poor thing.  Don't look at the photo closely if you have a weak stomach.