Cardinals are approximately eight and three fourths inches in length. Males are red with a black face and a reddish bill. Females are olive brown with orange highlights on the wings, tail, and crest. Immature males can look similar to females.
Females have orange bills while immature males have blackish ones.
They are year-round singers with loud, fluid whistles. Click here for their Song . Click here to hear their Call. Nests mostly occur three to ten feet off the ground, rarely to 20 feet, in dense shrubs, conifers, vines and thickets. Cardinal nests are made of loosely packed twigs, leaves, vines, bark strips, grasses rootlets and weed stalks.