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Wildlife Wonderings - Northern CardinalOne of our most popular birds, the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is the official state bird of no fewer than seven eastern states. Abundant in the Southeast, it has been extending its range northward for decades, and it now brightens winter days with its color and its whistled song as far north as southeastern Canada. Cardinals can be found in woodland edges in a wide variety of brushy or semi-open habitats from forest clearings and swamps to city parks, almost wherever there are some dense bushes for nesting.
Northern Cardinals were named after Roman Catholic bishops because the color of their feathers resembles the red robes worn by Catholic Cardinals. Cardinals get their red feathers from food! The red pigment in the male Cardinal’s feathers come from carotenoids in the foods that they eat, like berries. When the cardinal metabolizes berries, the carotenoid pigments are sequestered in the liver and then transported to the bloodstream for eventual deposit in growing feather follicles where they crystallize. Cardinals acquire orange, red, and yellow pigments from many seed sources, continuously keeping red plumes vibrant.
Unlike many species of songbirds where only the males can vocalize, both male and female Northern Cardinals can sing. Females will sing when they are in the nest as a way of signaling to their mate to bring them food.
Cardinals are very territorial birds, especially during the breeding season. The males, and sometimes even the females, are quick to fight off intruders. They demonstrate their anger with a sharp call and a lowering of their crest, then they attack by dive-bombing. There have been instances where these birds have injured themselves by fighting with their own reflections because they think they're fighting with intruders.
Despite their territorial nature during the breeding season, Northern Cardinals let their guard down in the winter. Cardinals are monogamous birds that pair up for a year or longer, although some couples mate for life. During courtship, males prove their strength by finding seeds for the female and feeding them to her one at a time, from his beak to hers. This courtship display looks a lot like kissing.
Nest building is done by both partners or by the female alone. The male and female take turns incubating the nest, and often the male would feed the female. In a clutch on average there are 1 to 6 eggs. Eggs are whitish to pale bluish or greenish white, marked with brown, purple, and gray. Incubation is almost always by the female alone for about 12-13 days. Cardinals produce one to three broods per season.
Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave the nest about 9-11 days after hatching. Males may feed fledglings while females begin the next nesting attempt. Most species build open-cup nests made of grasses and twigs and the young are born fledge between one and two weeks. Young cardinals are fed mostly insects. As adults, the eat mostly seeds, insects, including beetles, true bugs, grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, flies, and many others, also spiders, centipedes, and snails. Most of diet is vegetable matter, including seeds of weeds and grasses, waste grain, leaf buds, flowers, and many berries and wild fruits.
Cardinals sometimes partake in a behavior known as "anting" where they purposely place red ants on their feathers. There are still some unknowns about why Cardinals "ant" but it is believed that the ants eat or repel feather parasites. The formic acid secretions by the ants can also prevent the growth of bacterial and fungal infections.
Northern Cardinals will occasionally lose all the feathers on their heads and show bare black or dark gray skin. This is a natural part of their molting cycle; however, in some cases, mite or parasite infestations can contribute to this temporary baldness. In both cases, the feathers do eventually regrow!
To learn more about these fascinating birds, join a naturalist in the Nature Center at Jesse Jones Park from 12-1 p.m. on Wednesday, December 10. This program is free of charge and open to avian enthusiasts of all ages.
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