This female cardinal was hanging around in my buddy Clay Taylor's backyard. She looks like a female, but seems to have a red beard. I checked Cornell's Birds of North America and found this:

"Mix of male and female plumage reported, with red on one side and gray-olive on the other (Laskey 1969); also albinistic individuals (e.g., Hartman 1968, SUL) and a melanistic male with a black head (Brooks 1934). One rare instance of a female that obtained male plumage color in fifth year of 8 yr of recapture; she returned to female color in next year (Baumgartner 1986)."

What?? A female that had male plumage at 8 years old, but then grew back her normal coloration? What is that all about? Anyone else seeing some oddly plumaged cardinals?