Yellow cardinals nicknamed Tweets, Mr. Yellow, Sunny spotted in Florida, Illinois, Alabama

Normally, orange and blue are the colors best associated with the University of Florida. In recent weeks, however, yellow was all the rage.

A rare yellow cardinal has been spotted in a wooded area at the Gainesville campus — and it's a show-stopper.

"I don’t know how many cardinals I have seen, maybe thousands," said Andy Kratter, the ornithology collections manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History. "This is the first yellow cardinal I have seen."

Did you see the yellow cardinal?? “It's been non-stop talking about the bird" (and rightfully so)

Does this rare yellow cardinal want to be a Florida Gator? Because it's hanging around UF

Experts say there are only 10-15 yellow cardinals in North America. So when the elusive bird shows up, it tends to be a viral event. Before the Gainesville sightings, the rare bird was seen years past in Port St. Lucie, Alabama and Illinois. Here's a roundup and some things to know about yellow cardinals.

What makes the cardinal yellow?

Geoffrey Hill, a professor, bird curator and expert on bird coloration at Auburn University, told USA TODAY in a 2019 interview that people have a "one-in-a-million" chance to spot a yellow cardinal. He said the coloration is because of a mutation in the bird's DNA that blocks the normal red pigment and replaces it with a yellow color that stems from its diet.

He said cardinals have an enzyme that converts the yellow pigments to red, but if that enzyme fails, the feathers will be yellow.

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How to tell if it's really a yellow cardinal

The bird will have a yellow body with a black mask around its eyes and beak. Basically, it will look like a red cardinal except with yellow feathers.

Another yellow bird you might see in a backyard is the American goldfinch. Typically, goldfinches are small and yellow with a black cap, wings and tail.

What kind of food does the yellow cardinal eat?

Like the more common red cardinals, yellow cardinals typically eat birdseed along with insects and select fruits. 

Natural fruits that attract these birds include blueberry bushes, mulberry trees, and other dark-colored berries

How long do cardinals live?

Most cardinals have a lifespan of about three years.

Yellow cardinal nicknamed 'Mr. Yellow' spotted in Alabama in 2018

This sighting sparked a movement.

The yellow cardinal was first spotted in Alabaster, Alabama, in late January 2018 in the backyard of Charlie Stephenson. Stephenson told USA TODAY the bird had been a punctual visitor to her backyard feeder.

Professional photographer Jeremy Black, who is based in Alabama, snapped photos of the rare bird, which made the rounds on news sites nationwide.

The cardinal became an internet sensation known as Mr. Yellow.

Today, Black helps manage a Facebook page called the Yellow Cardinal, which tracks confirmed sightings of the rare bird (more on this below). As of Thursday, the Yellow Cardinal page has 15,000 followers.

'Every time we've looked for him,' the yellow cardinal showed up at least once a day

Yellow cardinal spotted in Georgia in 2018

According to a story in Southern Living, a rare male cardinal with yellow plumage was seen in May 2018 in the Atlanta suburb of Tucker. Unlike Mr. Yellow, this yellow bird was not given a nickname. Southern Living said it was the third yellow cardinal identified that year, with all three sightings taking place in the South.

Yellow cardinal spotted in Tennessee in 2019

On May 2, 2019, a yellow cardinal was seen in Kingston, Tennessee.

Photographer James Tucker posted photos on Facebook: "Had an awesome opportunity this week to go see a Yellow Morph Northern Cardinal. National Geographic calls this a one in a million bird. Yellow Cardinal’s (sic) are missing a usual enzyme that converts the yellow pigments in food they eat to red pigments. I spent 4.5 hours on this sweet lady’s porch waiting for the bird to provide a good look. It appears the bird is happy here & it should stick around. It was actively chasing males/females & I am hopeful it will mate successfully."

The Yellow Cardinal Facebook page shared Tucker's post, which had 135 shares and more than 1,000 likes: "This afternoon we are excited to share a confirmed sighting of another xanthochromic male Northern Cardinal recently spotted in Kingston, Tennessee. Thank you, JTucker Photography for documenting this particular Northern Cardinal and for sharing your thrilling sighting with us! We can't wait to see what other photographs/video footage you're able to capture!"

Yellow cardinal nicknamed 'Sunny' spotted in Florida in 2019

When a viral moment happens, a social media presence is born.

That's what happened when a yellow northern cardinal nicknamed "Sunny" was discovered in a Port St. Lucie backyard in Oct. 12, 2019.

After the rare bird was photographed by home-school teacher Tracy Workman, images of the cardinal circulated nationwide, followed by a Sunny the Yellow Cardinal Facebook page. 

Shake your tail feathers! That one time Sunny brought his radiance to the Sunshine State

2 yellow cardinals? Birds spotted in Florida twice, within 5 minutes of each other, 17 miles apart

OK, we've said it's rare to see a yellow cardinal. Like, one in a million.

Sometimes, there are exceptions to the rule.

After Workman spotted the yellow cardinal in her backyard in Port St. Lucie in October 2019, she saw it again on Jan. 23, 2020.

But, wait ...

Elizabeth Abeyta-Price of Palm City, about 17 miles away from Workman's home in Port St. Lucie, also saw a male yellow northern cardinal. Abeyta-Price told TCPalm she was on the phone with her daughter at 1:43 p.m. that day when she saw the rare bird in her backyard. The bird was in the area until about 2:06 p.m., she said.

Workman said she saw a rare yellow northern cardinal in her backyard and took an image on her digital camera, according to the TCPalm story. Workman examined the photo's metadata and said it was taken about 2:03 p.m.

There are multiple photos of Sunny taken in winter and spring 2020 by Workman on the "Sunny the Yellow Cardinal" Facebook page. While it's usually a one-in-a-million opportunity to see a yellow cardinal, Workman has struck gold with Sunny sightings.

But was the bird that Abeyta-Price in Palm City the same yellow cardinal?

TCPalm reporter Max Chesnes interviewed Geoffrey Hill, the Auburn University professor and avian expert, for the story. Hill confirmed in January 2020 that it was "almost for sure" there were at least two genetically mutated cardinals along the Treasure Coast.

Extremely rare 'one in a million' yellow cardinal spotted in Port St. Lucie — twice

Hmm, 2 yellow cardinals in one area? Could be the "Patagonia Rest Stop" Effect

"I'm extremely confident that it's a different bird," Hill said. "Cardinals are not flying random 17-mile trips around the city."

Yellow cardinal spotted in Illinois in 2021

After multiple Sunny sightings in Florida in 2020, a yellow cardinal sighting occurred a year later.

Chelsea Curry told USA TODAY she noticed a yellow songbird perched on a feeder at her home in Rushville, Illinois, in February 2021. She and her husband, Richard Curry, saw the bird "three to four times a day, and the worse the weather is, the more he’s there." He would bring along a mate, she added, and sometimes a younger cardinal was with them.

Yellow cardinal aka 'Tweets' spotted in Gainesville in 2022

In recent weeks, a yellow cardinal has been hanging around the University of Florida.

Kratter, the ornithology collections manager, told the Gainesville Sun he believes the yellow cardinal was born near UF's Natural Area Teaching Laboratory toward the end of 2021. He said some have referred to the bird, which has been spotted this month at UF, as "Tweets."

The bird has been spotted most in the early morning hours, often on the ground foraging for seeds and other foods or fluttering around, chirping in the wind while seeking a mate.

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Contributing: Jordan Mendoza and Doyle Rice, USA TODAY; Brad McClenny, Gainesville Sun; Max Chesnes, TCPalm