Found in the Clutter – Pyrrhuloxia

This impressive looking bird with an impressive name is a relative of the Northern Cardinal. These photographs were among the many I took on a trip to New Mexico in January 2018. We stopped for lunch at a little roadside place in Caballo to dine al fresco and this male came and perched in a nearby tree. Most of us gave up trying to pronounce Pyrrhuloxia and just called it a Western Cardinal. (I later found out that they do have the unofficial name “Desert Cardinal.)