Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!stretch.cs.mun.ca!leif!dgraham
From: dgraham@kean.ucs.mun.ca (David Graham)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Red-Crested Cardinal gets TV bit part: why?
Message-ID: <77277@kean.ucs.mun.ca>
Date: 11 Apr 90 12:25:42 GMT
Organization: Memorial University. St.John's Nfld, Canada
Lines: 24

A commercial for Esso (which is what we call Exxon in Canada) which 
I'm seeing a lot of these days because they're a sponsor for the 
Stanley Cup playoffs :-), begins with a man coming out of his house 
somewhere in Suburbia, N.A. (could be just about anywhere in summer). 
He looks up, whereupon there's a cut to a close-up of a Red-Crested 
Cardinal, _Paroaria coronata_, which emits a cheerful chirp. Evidently 
this is supposed to establish a mood of good humour or something. The 
cardinal appears to be sitting in a tree overhead, though since it 
never reappears in any of the long shots, one presumes it was actually
filmed in a cage... 

My question is this: are there any North American records for this 
species? If not, is it a common cage bird on this continent? If not, 
did they actually go to South America to film this commercial? Can 
anyone suggest why they would choose this bird rather than a native 
species, beyond the obvious reason of its attractive appearance?
-- 
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   David Graham					dgraham@kean.ucs.mun.ca  
   Department of French & Spanish		{...}munucs!dgraham
   Memorial University of Newfoundland		(709)737-7636/7 (Voice)
   St John's, NF				(709)737-4000	(Fax)
   CANADA A1B 3X9
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