May 1, 2016 - Texas - Pyrrhuloxia

The Pyrrhuloxia (pronounced pir-uh-LOK-see-uh) is another species seen at the photography workshop I attended in Texas. It’s a mostly gray bird but a male, like this one, has splashes of red on his crest, face, throat, breast, wings, and tail.

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Here’s a female Pyrrhuloxia. She is also gray and red but, as is often the case, she is less colorful than the male.

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The Pyrrhuloxia likes dry, desert-like conditions. Its range in the United States is fairly small; just the southern parts of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

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The Pyrrhuloxia and the Northern Cardinal are closely related and they do resemble each other. Here is a male Pyrrhuloxia and a male Cardinal. The color difference is obvious, but also notice the difference in their bills. The Cardinal has a straight, red bill and the Pyrrhuloxia has a rounded, yellow bill. Both have sturdy bills useful for cracking open hard seeds.

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The name Pyrrhuloxia used to be part of this bird’s Latin name. It is a combination of the Latin term for Bullfinch and a Greek reference to the shape of the bird’s bill. The current Latin name for the Pyrrhuloxia is Cardinalis sinuatus.

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The Pyrrhuloxia is sometimes called the “Desert Cardinal.”

I have more Pyrrhuloxia photos in my “Texas Photography Workshop” gallery. Here's a link to that gallery. When you get there, click on the Pyrrhuloxia photo. http://www.earlorfphotos.com/Trips/Texas-Photo-Workshop-Feb-2016/n-4pq9dr

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