Perhaps the easiest bird to ID in the central and eastern parts of the United States is the Northern Cardinal. With that bright red plumage, it’s also one of the most beautiful species and boasts no less than 7 State Bird titles across the US. Cardinals are a relatively common sight to many as well since they will readily visit backyard feeders from Maine to Texas. In fact, these handsome fellows are so common that they’re often overlooked by bird watchers. Hard to believe anyone could ignore a bright red bird lol!
Have you ever wondered why these birds are so richly hued? The Cardinal’s signature crimson red colored feathers are a product of the birds diet of plants, fruits and seeds rich in carotenoids. Although there are plenty of options for them to snack on in the wild, you can grow plants right in your own backyard to help your local Cardinals keep their bright color.
These guys love fruit like raspberries, blackberries and strawberries as these fruits are packed with the carotenoids the birds need. That being said, if you really want to impress your flock of backyard Cardinals, plant a a Dogwood as those red berries produced by this flowering tree are by far and away their favorite backyard treat.
it’s good to be a birder, no matter the season. There are so many gifts in store for you throughout the year and you need only to step outside to receive them.
Get out there, and take it all in no matter the weather! It’s easy look out our window, glance at the storm laden clouds above and take note of the raindrops traced path on the window pane. Staying inside means certain comfort. Yet, from a birders perspective there is a beautiful world out there waiting for you to enjoy while the rest stay in.
I’ve discovered that birds may be more active on days where there is a light drizzle. The woods become alive with fluttering movements in the underbrush. Songs and calls ring out over open fields, the sounds of life mixing with the rainfall. Even the sight of a familiar bird like this Northern Cardinal can feel like a present when taking in the vibrancy of its colors in that soft silvery light.
I spotted this handsome fella while birding with my friend @latta.ridge on a rainy morning at Cape Fear Shiners Park in Lillington, NC. By my estimation, Shiners park is a Cardinal factory because we saw quite a few of them out there along the trails lol! Not that it was a surprise, after all Northern Cardinals are one of the most common species of birds found in North Carolina. And they are popular too! In fact, these beauties are one of the most beloved birds in the US serving as the official State Bird of 7 states representing Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia respectively.
During the winter when our hardwood forests are scarce of leaf cover, Cardinals move to more sheltered spaces. Over the next few months, look (and listen!) for them foraging in tangled thickets, along the edges of woodlands, and in densely weeded fields across the state. Of course if you put out a bird feeder you’re likely to be blessed with the sight of these feathered gems in your own backyard as well. Especially if you fill your feeder with black oil sunflower and safflower seeds. Rain or shine, in the yard or in the field it’s always nice to take the time to enjoy a Northern Cardinal.
When bird watching in NC, one of the most instantly recognizable species is the male Northern Cardinal. A familiar sight both in our yards and in the woods, these vibrantly colored birds are found in all 100 counties across the Tarheel State. I spotted this handsome fellow at the NC Museum of Art Park yesterday morning hiding on a shady bough.
As the end of the nesting season draws near, the Cardinals will start to molt out their feathers which will be replaced by bright new plumage. Some of them even lose all the feathers on their head all at once! This one appears to have started the process as he’s looking a little rough around the edges.
The Cardinal’s signature crimson red colored feathers are a product of the birds diet of plants, fruits and seeds rich in carotenoids. Although there are plenty of options for them to snack on in the wild, you can grow plants right in your own backyard to help your local Cardinals keep their bright color. These guys love fruit like raspberries, blackberries and strawberries as these fruits are packed with the carotenoids the birds need. That being said, if you really want to impress your flock of Cardinals, plant a a Dogwood as those red berries produced by this flowering tree are by far and away their favorite backyard treat.
One of the most uncommonly beautiful common birds we’ve got around here happens to be North Carolina’s state bird, the Northern Cardinal. It’s admittedly easy to overlook these feathered gems because they’re found nearly everywhere but with those striking red and black feathers it’s hard to ignore one for long.
I spotted this one while on a recent birding trip to the Prairie Ridge Ecostation in Raleigh. With wide open fields and deciduous forest, the Prairie Ridge Ecostation provides the perfect habitat for these handsome birds. It’s not unusual to see 30 or more of them within a 20 minute walk, That place is basically a Cardinal factory haha!
Have you ever wondered how these creatures acquire and maintain their vibrant hues? Northern Cardinals get their plumage color from pigments within their food which is called “carotenoids.” The bright red berries produced by the Dogwood tree is one of Cardinal’s favorite foods and these are rich in carotenoids. These berries are metabolized in the birds digestive system then are sent through the cardinal’s bloodstream to the growing follicles of their feathers. Although carotenoids do not give feathers that are fully grown extra color, they do provide their new feathers with a shot of color with every molting cycle. When a cardinal does not get enough food rich in these important carotenoids, the red hues of their feathers dull when they molt. However, once they are able to find the right food again, newer feathers will have the beautiful red hue shining through. Aren’t they gorgeous? 🙂
By far, the most common bird I saw during my visit to the Prairie Ridge Ecostation last week were the Northern Cardinals. It’s funny to me that so many people ignore them. With that vibrant red plumage and contrasting black mask, they’re are simply stunning creatures.
Our official state bird, the Northern Cardinal is a year round resident of North Carolina and are found in every county from the coast to the mountains foraging for a meal in areas of dense brushy undergrowth or in hedges. Cardinals are of course a familiar backyard visitor too. They usually are seen on the ground below our feeders picking at the fallen seed.
Though they’re indeed numerous, I still enjoy photographing them whenever possible. That color is irresistible to me from a creative perspective. Plus, whenever I see a Cardinal I’m reminded how important it is not to take a moment (or a bird) like this for granted. After all, though they may be common around here, they are someone else’s Life Bird in other locations. Thus seeing one is extra special anyway one looks at it 🙂
The state bird of N.C. is the Northern Cardinal, a familiar backyard feathered gem boldly colored with a cheerful song. Have you ever wondered what gives their plumage that bright red color?
The coloration in these birds comes from three naturally occurring chemical compounds: melanin, porphyrins, and carotenoids. Melanin is present in humans, giving us our skin, hair and eye colors — and it’s what gives cardinals black, brown, and buff hues. Porphyrin is responsible for reddish and brownish shades. But it’s the carotenoids, which create yellow, orange, and red colors, that are perhaps the most important to the male cardinal’s striking red coloring.
These carotenoids are found in plants. Cardinals that are especially bright red, are most likely dining on a healthy diet of carotenoid-rich fruits and berries. You can aid these gorgeous birds in their development of rich coloration by planting native berry bushes like raspberries and mulberries in your yard. Another excellent food source is the Dogwood tree as their berries are particularly favored by Cardinals. In addition to offering black oil sunflower seeds, you can also mix in some safflower seeds into your feeder which will add a bit of extra carotenoids into their high protein diets. Such a gorgeous bird!
Found a male Northern Cardinal all poofed up in my yard yesterday morning. With the recent bit of cooler weather that’s made it into the Raleigh area of central NC, I’ve noticed an uptick to the number of birds at my feeders.
Northern Cardinal
The Cardinals usually appear early in the morning or late in the afternoon just before sunset. Makes me wonder if they know how bright their plumage is so they only come out into the open at dawn or dusk to avoid predators. Such handsome birds, worth getting up a little early to enjoy! Photo by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc Canon 5Ds
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I know they are a common bird here in central North Carolina but I cannot help but smile and grab my camera when ever I see a Northern Cardinal.
I especially love to photograph them in the wintertime on dark rainy days. Somehow I think they just look even better in seemingly “adverse” weather related photography conditions. That crimson plumage just pops in this dim silver light 🙂 I’ve noticed that the Cardinals around here tend to come out of the woods along my property line just before sunrise and again at sunset to visit my feeders. During the rest of the day, they tend to stay in the forest. The exception being on rainy days where they appear out in the open all day long. Have any of you out there ever noticed this behavior? Let me know in the comments below.
While birding at Yates Mill Park in Raleigh, N.C. a few weeks ago, I photographed a skirmish between a female Northern Cardinal and a juvenile Song Sparrow.
It was an odd situation in that the Sparrow was not acting aggressively towards the Cardinal. Rather, it appeared to be begging for food!
The Sparrow would creep up right next to the Cardinal and squat low fluttering it’s wings with its mouth open in a submissive stance. Very strange behavior! For her part, the female Cardinal was having none of it. She chirped at the smaller bird loudly and tried to bite it. Eventually she chased him away before setting back into the typical Cardinal floof-ball resting stance.
I’ve seen a ton of weird behavior in the years I’ve
spent watching birds but have never seen different species acting like
this (apart from parasitic behavior by Cowbirds). Crazy!
Have any of you ever witnessed this kind of interaction between two totally different species before?
Northern Cardinals are a familiar sight in backyards all over North Carolina.
Easily identifiable with raised crests on their crowns and orange-ish, cone-shaped bills, males like this one are a brilliant red color except for a black mask on their face. Because their so common, it’s easy to overlook just how interesting this beautiful bird is.
Today, there is new evidence being presented for case to be made to split the species of Cardinal in the American southwest. Here is an excerpt via the Audubon Society…
“The research, led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, confirms that cardinals from the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts don’t interbreed, despite being separated by just 120 miles of plains habitat. While the Sonoran group is already considered a subspecies, these findings hint that it may need to be reclassified as its own species. To put it into perspective, that would mean that the Arizona Cardinals would rep a different bird than the St. Louis Cardinals.
“Everybody thinks, ‘It’s a cardinal, I know what a cardinal looks
like,’ ” says lead author Kaiya Provost, a Ph.D. student at the museum’s
Richard Gilder Graduate School. “But when you really start digging in
you realize, ‘Oh, maybe they’re not what I thought they were.’ ”
Ornithologists like Provost have long been aware of a certain degree of cardinal diversity. The IOC World Bird List
currently recognizes 19 Northern Cardinal subspecies, most of which
were discovered over a century ago. What’s more, in a pair of genetic studies
earlier this decade, Provost’s academic adviser Brian Smith identified
six reproductively isolated cardinal populations across North America
(four of which live exclusively in Mexico).
Smith’s findings propelled a 2014 proposal to split the Northern
Cardinal into six species. But the American Ornithologists’ Union
checklist committee, the leading local authority on bird taxonomy, rejected it unanimously, citing a lack of vocalization studies and other supporting data.
That’s where this new paper comes in. Through genetic comparisons
crunched by complex computer models, Provost, Smith, and a third
co-author, William Mauck, determined that the Sonoran population
(~150,000) diverged from the Chihuahuan one (~700,000) about a million
years ago. They found that some interbreeding may have taken place in the past, but likely not in the last tens of thousands of years.
Part of the reason could be the birds’ unique field marks. Unlike their eastern counterparts, Sonoran males have a pale brick-red look with a taller crest and less black on the face. They don’t sound similar either: Provost loosely describes the songs of the two populations to be as different as Portuguese and German.
To better learn how vocals fit into the cardinals’ breeding strategy,
Provost and her team traveled to the Sonoran Desert near Portal,
Arizona, and to the Chihuahuan Desert in Big Bend National Park, Texas,
where they played four song recordings for dozens of territorial males:
one of a neighboring cardinal, one of a non-neighboring cardinal from
the same desert, one of a cardinal from the other desert, and one of a
Cactus Wren (the experimental control).
In general, the males acted hyper aggressively with their perceived
neighbors, but ignored rivals from the other desert. Previous studies
show females reacting tepidly to songs from other populations; so, with
that in mind, the authors concluded that any cardinal that survives the
flight across the high plains—a treacherous stretch filled with
“tumbleweeds, dust storms, and a lot of billboards,” Provost says—would
still be unable to flirt and find a mate.
But don’t stamp the species’ divorce papers just yet. Kenn Kaufman, Audubon
field editor and bird expert, cautions that the latest study is
“suggestive but not overwhelmingly so.” He points out that during the
experiments, the Sonoran cardinals ignored the songs of distant
individuals from the same desert, even as the Chihuahuan cardinals
didn’t. That means there could be more factors at play.
The study does have one definitive takeaway, though: that ever-cheaper and -convenient technologies are upending the avian family tree. “We’re starting to see a number of [splits among] species that are very similar looking, [but that] talk different and act different and don’t mate,” says Geoff LeBaron, Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count director. He points to the 2010 rejiggering of the Winter Wren as an example, and adds that Marsh Wrens, Warbling Vireos, and Eastern Meadowlarks might be among the next to go. Looks like the near-estranged Sonoran cardinals will be in good company.”
