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Why do northern cardinals sport such vivid red colors? Here are fun facts about one of North America鈥檚 most easily recognizable birds鈥攑lus, hear the cardinal鈥檚 sweet bird song!
Members of the finch family, northern cardinals are about 9 inches long with a wingspan of 12 inches. Both males and females sport a crest on top of their heads and long tails. The male is a flashy red color with a black face around its thick red bill; the female cardinal is a pale brown with attractive warm reddish tinges in the wings, tail, and crest.
The female cardinal with its pretty red accents
Why Are Cardinals So Red?
The cardinal鈥檚 plumage color is due to its diet during molt, which is rich with foods containing carotenoid pigments found in plants, insects, seeds, and some fruits such as blackberry, hackberry, wild grape, sumac, and dogwood. Current research indicates brighter males have increased reproductive success.
During courting, the male brings the female seeds, a method known as 鈥渂eak to beak.鈥 Credit: Samir Husni
Where to Find Cardinals
A highly adaptable species, cardinals are found in eastern/central North America, southern Canada, parts of Mexico, and Central America.
Interestingly, the cardinal was once known as a Carolinian species but has dramatically expanded its range over the past 50 years. The breeding range has expanded north since the mid-1800s for three reasons:
Clearing of forests, increasing edge habitat
Warmer climates
Winter feeding stations
It is not a bird of the forest and has advanced north following the clearing of forests, which provided tangles in shrubbery and city parks. It is believed that cardinals moved from the south of Ohio, then to southern Canada, then east to New England. They鈥檙e now a common bird in brushy areas near adjoining woodlands, often located in suburban areas.
What Do Cardinals Eat?
Cardinals particularly love seeds, especially black oil sunflower seeds. Their short, strong beaks are great seed and nutcrackers! Due to their fondness for seeds, cardinals will often forage on the ground around feeders.
That said, cardinals are not especially picky eaters. As well as plant matter (seeds, berries, and fruit), the birds eat insects (29%)鈥攕uch as beetles, cicadas, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, moths, flies, butterflies, and crickets.
Here鈥檚 a fun fact: Ever noticed that cardinals are often the last birds to visit the bird feeder in the evening? While their bright colors are suitable for mating, the birds are probably less visible to predators as the light dims, plus they avoid competition for food from bigger birds.
Why Are the Birds Named Cardinals?
The name 鈥渃ardinal鈥 reflects the bird鈥檚 bright red plumage, the same color as the clothing worn by cardinals of the Catholic clergy.
Interestingly, these non-migrating birds operate as a flock in the winter to better forage, and this is called a 鈥淰atican of cardinals.鈥
Why Are Sports Teams Named the Cardinals?
The 鈥淐ardinals鈥 are a popular name for sports team mascots. Think of the NFL鈥檚 Arizona Cardinals football and MLB鈥檚 St. Louis Cardinals baseball teams. Also, the Cardinals鈥 mascot represents many college teams. Why? Perhaps it鈥檚 related to the male cardinals鈥 aggressiveness, similar to the blue jays.
Male cardinals are very defensive of the nesting territory. They are close to their mates and help raise the chicks so they will defend their family at all costs.
Cardinal Nests and Baby Cardinals
Cardinals do not migrate; they spend the year where they breed. Females construct the nest after both adults select the site. Often, it will be found in honeysuckle shrubs, blackberry briars, or multiflora roses. The nest is a bowl-shaped structure of four layers, including a rough outer layer of twigs crushed together, a leafy mat, grapevine bark, and then a lining of fine grasses.
The average clutch is three eggs, buffy greenish-white with medium brown spots. The last egg laid is always more lightly spotted. The eggs hatch in 11 to 13 days, and the young birds fledge in 9 to 10 days.
The life span of most cardinals is 3 to 5 years, on average, with the longest wild female living to 15 years old. These birds have to deal with a lot of predation, disease, accidents, and hunger.
The birds are predominately monogamous and will often mate for life, though they鈥檝e also been known to 鈥渂reak up鈥 and look for new mates, especially if their mate dies.
A Strange Cardinal Story
A cardinal participated in one of the strangest bird behaviors ever observed. A female cardinal once fed worms to a goldfish in an ornamental pond where people had fed goldfish! Both the goldfish and the cardinal became an attraction. A photograph of this appears in Joel Carl Welty鈥檚 The Life of Birds.
What is the Cardinal鈥檚 Bird Sound?
At the top of this page, you鈥檒l find the audio file of a cardinal鈥檚 song. Cardinals are unusual in that they are one of the few non-migratory songbirds. The bird makes a clear, repetitive whistling that you鈥檒l often hear first thing in the morning. Listen for the 鈥渃heer, cheer, cheer鈥 or 鈥渂irdy, birdy, birdy.鈥 Aside from its song, a cardinal鈥檚 most common call is a loud, metallic chipping sound that you鈥檒l hear during breeding when the birds defend their territory from predators.
Here鈥檚 a cool fact: Both males and females sing! For most songbirds, it鈥檚 just the male. Even more surprising is the way that cardinal couples sing as a pair to each other as they are very close partners and parents. The cardinal鈥檚 duets seem to strengthen their bonds. The female sings from the nest while incubating eggs and communicates to the male when to bring food to the nest; the male will sing during courtship but also signal a predator to the female when she鈥檚 in the nest.
You won鈥檛 see cardinals as often as you might expect despite their bright color because they hide in dense tangles. The best way to find them is often by listening to their sounds.
If you鈥檝e seen or heard cardinals, please share below. Be sure to let us know where you live or where you鈥檝e heard this bird sound before!
Tom Warren is a lifelong bird enthusiast. Tom is also committed to protecting birds and their habitat as a Trustee for both Massachusetts and聽New Hampshire Audubon, and聽the Harris Nature Center. Read More from Tom Warren
So, I live in West Tennessee.
I have a strange question about a male cardinal. Would anyone, please try to explain why for the last 2 months a red male cardinal, has been perching every morning in an evergreen tree planted outside my 98 yr old father in laws kitchen window, and flies at the window pecks on it flies back to his perch, and then pecks on the window again? Everyday for 2 months only in the morning hrs till around 1130 am.
I've never seen this before , nor has my father in law and he's very interested in learning why?
Hi! I have a female that sits on the window ledge every day. She jumps and pecks at the window also. Then she sings out, a the male brings her seed <3
I have video if you are interested, I'd love to share!
Tell your father in law to embrace whoever is visiting! Much live!
I live in Northern New Brunswick, Canada and put up multiple bird feeders every year. Love my birds. Came home from work one evening and there was a beautiful male cardinal sitting on top of one of my shepherd's hooks. Beautiful! The only one I've ever seen. Never saw him again, sadly.
I live in Frankfort, Illinois, I am a big birder. I feed the birds and ducks, have an acre pond. The wildlife is amazing. We had about 20-25 Cardinals up until 2 years ago. :Last year, We had only 10. Not sure if something did them in, virus or old age, but they are starting to recover. I always feel I'm being visited by some angels from heaven, when they are near.
A few years back I was sitting on my lanai watching the birds in my back yard. The lanai is screened and it acts like a blind, so if I sit still, the birds get quite close. I noticed this male cardinal flailing around and presenting unusual behavior. As it turns out the cardinal was attacking a small gecko. The cardinal eventually killed the gecko and ate it. I was surprised to see such predatory behavior.
My home is west of Chicago. There have been 2 mated pairs of Cardinals on my property for several years. They get along, I believe they are related as we have had cardinals for 30 years.
I came home to 6 - yes SIX adult cardinals (3males, 3 females) sitting in my crabapple tree chirping their little hearts out. I knew they weren't killing each other over territory overlap but never thought they would flock.
No leaves, just abundant little red apples and little red birds.
We have cardinals living in our yard year round and we think they nest in our huge cedar hedge and old wild rose (8 ft diameter). We live in Meaford, Ontario Canada