Yellow-billed Cardinal Gallery

Paroaria capitata

The Birds of the World website introduces the Yellow-billed Cardinal with this descriptive information:  The various species in this genus of cardinals are actually tanager-finches, quite distantly related from the true cardinals in the family Cardinalidae. 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. It is a very striking species though! The head is bright red, turning black on the throat, making it look like it has a black bib. As the name states, the bill is yellow, almost orange in fact and about the same color as the legs. The underparts are white and the upperparts 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 (Paroaria coronata), Red-crested takes habitats in drier and shrubbier habitats, while 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, through parts of Argentina and southern Brazil. It has been successfully introduced to several of the larger islands in Hawaii!

I met my first Yellow-billed Cardinal on the morning of Tuesday, August 23, 2023.  Our Jeff Parker Tour group was staying at Southwild’s Santa Tereza Lodge and I watched this beautiful little bird at one of the viewing areas near the lodge.  Over the course of the two days we were at this lodge, I saw many of these birds around the grounds as well as on the river.  For details of my Brazilian trip that include the sighting of this bird, look here.  Below are a few of my photos of this striking little bird.