This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have the unmistakable, unavoidable, scarlet songbird known throughout the eastern US. A bird that needs no introduction but will receive one anyway, the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), or known more simply as the Cardinal or Red-bird.
Cardinals are an easily recognized, widespread species found in yards, brush, wood edges, and hedgerows from Maine to Minnesota to Guatemala. They don’t migrate and can be found throughout most of their range year-round, whether braving the winter or enjoying the summer. Male Cardinals are a deep, pure red and females a warm orange-brown with subdued garnet wings and tail. Both sexes sport a bold orange bill and black beard with a prominent crest to the head. They’re generalists, eating seeds, insects, worms, fruits, and nuts. Their stout bill allows them to take advantage of heavy seeds and the harder nuts to crack but it doesn’t limit their ability to eat softer, wrigglier foods. Cardinals are no strangers to bird feeders and regularly visit these seed dispensaries across this half of the continent. Like many feeder birds, they prefer sunflower seeds and enjoy suet. Males and females mate for life and are rarely far apart from each other. Males are territorial and can often be seen fussing at each other around feeders or singing 20 feet or more up in the trees each morning to stake their claim with the neighbors. Cardinals get their name from the male’s plumage. His scarlet feathers are the same shade as the robes and caps worn by the Catholic Cardinals.
