The male Northern Cardinal is perhaps responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird. They’re a perfect combination of familiarity, conspicuousness, and style: a shade of red you can’t take your eyes off. Even the brown females sport a sharp crest and warm red accents. Cardinals don’t migrate and they don’t molt into a dull plumage, so they’re still breathtaking in winter’s snowy backyards. In summer, their sweet whistles are one of the first sounds of the morning.
Only a few female North American songbirds sing, but the female Northern Cardinal does, and often while sitting on the nest. This may give the male information about when to bring food to the nest. A mated pair shares song phrases, but the female may sing a longer and slightly more complex song than the male. During the breeding season, male Cardinals may sing 200 or more songs per hour in the early morning hours. Mated pairs will often sing duets together.
Northern Cardinals eat mainly seeds and fruit, supplementing these with insects (and feeding nestlings mostly insects). Common fruits and seeds include dogwood, wild grape, buckwheat, grasses, sedges, mulberry, hackberry, blackberry, sumac, tulip-tree, and corn. Cardinals eat many kinds of birdseed, particularly black oil sunflower seed. They also eat beetles, crickets, katydids, leafhoppers, cicadas, flies, centipedes, spiders, butterflies, and moths.
The food habits of Cardinals change during the year. A study has revealed that from November through April more than 75% of their diet consists of vegetable material; the month of July drops to a low of 35% vegetable material, while the remaining months vary between 50 to 70%. The availability of insects (beetles, grasshoppers, crickets) is the prime reason for this fluctuation.
The red color of the Cardinal’s feathers is the result of pigments called carotenoids. The amount of the pigment ingested, and then deposited in the feathers as they molt, influences the quality and depth of their coloration.
While bird feeding may have played a small role in the northward expansion of the Cardinal’s range during the past 60 years. Studies show that the northern edge of the Cardinal’s range is limited to areas with an average January temperature of at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit. As this temperature gradient has moved north, so have the Cardinals.
Another important factor in the Cardinal’s northward expansion is the change in land-use practices in the Northeast. The loss of the dense forest to agriculture and suburban uses has greatly expanded the amount of suitable habitat for Cardinals.
The oldest recaptured banded Northern Cardinal was still alive at 15 years and 9 months old.
Fun Facts About Northern Cardinals