Cardinal (Yellow-Billed)

 

This so called cardinal is actually a tanager-finches, quite distantly related from the true cardinals. The Yellow-billed Cardinal is not a crested species, so other than having red on the head, there is nothing very cardinal-like about it at all ! The head is bright red, turning black on the throat, and As the name states, the bill is orangey yellow about the same colour as the legs. The under parts are white and the upper-parts blackish, and these are separated by a white half collar from the red head

This cardinal is a species of streamside vegetation, being found also around lakes and swamps and often feeding right from the water’s edge. Where it overlaps with the larger Red-crested Cardinal, the Red-crested takes habitats in drier and shrubbier habitats, while the Yellow-billed is more of the wetland species. However, they both overlap to some extent. The bright coloration and nice song has made them a prime candidate as a cage bird in South America. It has been successfully introduced to several of the larger islands in Hawaii!

Photographed in the wild, Big Island Hawaii