“Does the world really need another photo of a cardinal?” That's the question Sean Graesser asked himself a few years ago as he carefully untangled a Northern Cardinal from a mistnet in Connecticut. The ornithologist, bird bander, and photographer typically turned his lens on neotropical migrants—birds (including hummingbirds, warblers, and flycatchers) that, like him, split their time between the United States and Central American rainforests. But the delicate beauty of the common, resident cardinal struck him. There was the red mohawk, of course, but there was also "the subtle tinge of grey in the back plumage," he says. The bird also had "this amazing beak that’s like a vicegrip on your fingers." Right then, he decided that, indeed, the world needed another photo of a cardinal. So he held the bird up to a black backdrop and took his shot. Graesser’s portrait of the Northern Cardinal (pictured above) is part of his ongoing project to exhibit the...