Nature is truly fascinating. Every once in a while, it gifts us a moment so unexpected it stops us in our tracks. And maybe, if we’re lucky enough, we can snap a quick photo to preserve it forever.
This is exactly what happened to one Florida woman in her backyard. For a moment, she thought she spotted nothing more than an unusual yellow shape in the grass.
But then she saw it more closely, and realized she was staring at something almost no one ever gets to see!
An Extremely Rare Creature
Dyane Oliva was out in her garden in Coral Springs, Florida, tending plants, expecting an ordinary morning in the quiet. But then she caught something unusual in her peripheral vision.
Only inches away from her was a bright yellow shape sitting low in the grass. At first, she brushed it off as just another colorful bird passing through during migration season. In Florida, this is a common sight at this time of year.
But this one? It didn’t quite fit!
Oliva, a worker at Broward County’s Natural Resources Division, came closer to it and realized it was a bird. First, she thought it was an oriole. However, its black face mask, a feature she’d only ever seen on one type of bird, was of a yellow Northern Cardinal.
“I thought it was an oriole. We’re in the middle of migration season right now so we’re getting a lot of cool, colorful little birds down from up north. I just thought it was like a Baltimore oriole or spotted oriole,” Oliva said in the video.
Absolutely stunned by what she had just witnessed, Oliva caught the whole situation on camera and sent it to the Florida Ornithological Society for confirmation. Before long, she got it!
As it turned out, Oliva had discovered an almost once-in-a-lifetime yellow cardinal that happens to be an extremely rare sight in Florida.
“About one in a million Northern Cardinals are yellow. NatureScape staff Dyane recently spotted a yellow cardinal in Coral Springs and documented the occasion,” Broward County Environment wrote in the Instagram video description.
In fact, the birding specialists say that only about three yellow cardinals are spotted in the U.S. each year.
The Perfect Time Of Year
Oliva hopes this exact experience will spark the interest of nature lovers all across the country. This time of year, during migration, is perfect for catching a fascinating sight. Even the most ordinary neighborhoods can turn into natural treasure hunts.
“This is definitely the time to get out to try it if you haven’t tried birding yet. You can bird anywhere, your backyard, you can go to parks, you can go to cemeteries, anywhere that there’s trees and that it’s public ground. You can hang out and just watch the trees for a little while, and you’re almost guaranteed to see something cool,” Oliva added.
The yellow cardinal was just a reminder of how much magic is hidden in plain sight. If you’re lucky enough (and careful), you might just reveal something almost no one else does.