Northern Cardinal ~ female

Our house faces west, which means that in the afternoon sometimes there's an opportunity for a prettily backlit bird in the maple tree. This afternoon the fun involved trying to get the camera to focus on the bird rather than the millions of twigs and maple blossoms (Spring!!) around her. I was moderately pleased with this one. 

At one point just before this, there were no fewer than five female cardinals on the rock in front of the house, but I didn't get my camera up fast enough to catch them.