A beauty from the north.

I am asked why tropical birds are so colorful. Not a simple question, but it is felt that because food is so easy for birds to obtain in the tropics, that females choose males just based on thier physical appearance, not on their percieved ability to provide food for the offspring. In other words, the girls just choose the hot guys.
This may be true, but there are certainly some beautiful birds in the Northern Hempisphere also. Here is one that is familiar to everyone, the Northern Cardinal.
This one was shot in South Carolina; the eastern cardinals do not have a crest as high or as prominent as the western and southern cardinals.