Northern Cardinal

## Description

The Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a very populalr songbird in the genus Cardinalis found in North and Central Americas. Seven eastern states have it as their official state bird. The Northern cardinal was once prized as a pet, but its sale as a cage bird was banned in the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

## Appearance

The adult male is a brilliant crimson-red color with a black face mask over the eyes, extending to the upper chest. The color becomes duller and darker on the back and wings. The female is fawn-colored, with mostly grayish-brown tones and a slight reddish tint on the wings, crest, and tail feathers. The face mask of the female is gray to black and is less defined than that of the male. Both sexes possess prominent raised crests and bright coral-colored beaks. The beak is cone-shaped and strong. Young birds, both male, and female show coloring similar to the adult female until the fall, when they molt and grow adult feathers. They are brown above and red-brown below, with brick-colored crest, forehead, wings, and tail. The legs and feet are dark pink-brown. The iris of the eye is brown. The plumage color of the males is produced from carotenoid pigments in the diet. Coloration is produced from both red pigments and yellow carotenoid pigments. Northern cardinal males normally metabolize carotenoid pigments to create plumage pigmentation of a color different from the ingested pigment. When fed only yellow pigments, males become a pale red color. A few "yellow morph" cardinals, a trait called xanthochroism, lack the enzyme to do this conversion. Their beak and feathers (except for the black face mask) are yellow. During winter, both males and females will fluff up their down feathers in order to retain warm air next to their bodies. The down feathers are small and hairlike at the base of each flight feather. The legs and feet of almost all birds are thin and lack feathers, and are vulnerable to rapid heat loss.

## Distribution

Northern cardinals are common throughout central and eastern North America, and south from Florida and Mexico down to Belize and Guatemala. They don't migrate and live year-round in woodland edges, streamside thickets, wetlands, shrublands, gardens, and vegetation near houses in suburban and urban areas.

## Behavior

Northern cardinals are active during the day, especially in the morning and evening. In winter they feed in large flocks of as many as 60 to 70, mainly in open thickets on the ground, but they also forage in bushes and trees. In winter, most will roost and flock together. Males are very territorial and will defend their territory from other males. If they see their own reflection, they may attempt to fight this intruder. These birds primarily use physical displays and vocalizations to communicate. Both male and female cardinals sing, with beautiful, loud whistled phrases, sounding like "whacheer whacheer" and "whoit whoit whoit". They sing for courtship and to defend territories. "Chips" is their contact call or alarm. They also use many visual displays for signaling alarm, including "tail-flicks" and lifting and lowering their crest.

## Diet

Northern cardinals are herbivores (granivores); they eat the seeds of grasses and corn, fruit (grapes and berries), buds, sunflower seeds, and insects. Sometimes they will drink maple sap out of sapsucker holes.

## Reproduction

Northern cardinals are serially monogamous and pairs remain together for only one breeding season, rarely more. During the season, males and females engage in courtship displays, swaying from side to side with necks outstretched, and crests erect, while singing softly. They may offer the other bird seed, touching beaks briefly as they do so. Northern cardinals breed from March to September. They usually have two broods per year, one starting around March and the other from late May to July. The nest is built by the female within a dense tangle of twigs or vines in a shrub or small tree. Eggs are greenish or bluish and spotted with brown, numbering 1 to 5. Incubation is for around 11 to 13 days, and just by the female, though the male feeds her. She broods her altricial chicks for the first two days, both parents feeding them. Chicks start to fledge when they are about 7 to 13 days old and are fed for about a month after leaving the nest. They then join a flock of juveniles. They are reproductively mature when they are one year old.

## Population

### Population threats

Over the past 200 years, this species has increased in geographic range and number. However, habitat loss at the edge of their range, in southeastern California, may lead to the loss of the cardinal population in this area.

### Population number

According to the Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan-Museum of Zoology) resource, the total population size of the Northern cardinal is around 100 million individuals. According to the All About Birds resource, the total breeding population size of the species is 120 million birds. Overall, currently, Northern cardinals are classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List and their numbers today remain stable.

### Ecological niche

As these birds eat lots of seeds and fruit, they may act as seed dispersers for some plants. They also may influence the composition of the plant community through their seed-eating. They also sometimes raise Brown-headed cowbird chicks from eggs that have been laid in their nests, helping populations of these birds.

## Fun Facts

Male Northern cardinals that are a brighter red have territories that have denser vegetation, feed at levels that are higher, and have more success with females than males who are less bright in color.

The Northern cardinal features as the state bird of these seven states: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina.

A group of cardinals is known by many names including a "college", "deck", "radiance", "conclave", and "Vatican" of cardinals.

Female Northern cardinals sing often when sitting on the nest, which may give their mate information about bringing food to the nest.

People are puzzled each spring when they see a cardinal attacking its reflected image in a window, mirror, or shiny surface. Males and females both do this, most often in the spring and early summer, in order to defend their territory against intruders. They spend hours fighting without giving up. As their aggressive hormones subside a few weeks later, these attacks should stop. One bird, however, kept up this behavior for six months.