Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis
The most-named state bird in the United States and a fixture of the winter backyard. The northern cardinal doesn't migrate, doesn't molt out of its color, and sings all year — which is why a brilliant red bird against snow has become one of the most recognizable images in North American wildlife.
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Cardinals live in woodland edges, thickets, gardens, and suburbs across the eastern and central United States, the desert Southwest, and Mexico. They favor dense shrubby cover for nesting and have expanded steadily northward over the past century, helped by backyard bird feeders.
Behavior
Cardinals are non-migratory seed-eaters with strong conical bills built for cracking. Unusually among North American songbirds, the female sings as well as the male, often from the nest, and pairs counter-sing in duet. Males are fiercely territorial in breeding season and will attack their own reflection in windows and car mirrors for hours. Both sexes hold territory year-round and many pairs mate for multiple seasons.
Marginalia
- The cardinal is the official state bird of seven US states — more than any other species — including Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, and Kentucky.
- The male's red color comes entirely from carotenoid pigments in its diet; a bird that eats poorly grows in duller feathers, so brightness is an honest signal of fitness to females.
- Female cardinals sing — a rarity among northern songbirds — and often do so from the nest, possibly to tell the male when to bring food.
- Occasionally a cardinal is found split down the middle, red on one side and tan on the other: a bilateral gynandromorph, literally male on one half of the body and female on the other.
Kin & neighbors
Common questions
What does it mean when you see a cardinal?
In a widespread piece of North American folklore, a cardinal is a visit from a departed loved one — 'cardinals appear when angels are near.' The belief is modern and sentimental rather than ancient, but it is now firmly attached to the bird. The red color and the fact that cardinals stay all winter, vivid against bare branches and snow, are what made them the chosen messenger.
What do cardinals eat?
Mostly seeds, grains, and fruit, which is why feeders stocked with sunflower and safflower draw them reliably. In the breeding season the diet shifts toward insects — beetles, crickets, caterpillars — and nestlings are fed almost entirely on insects for the protein.
How long do cardinals live?
Usually about three years in the wild, with most birds lost in their first winter. Survivors do far better: banded wild cardinals have reached 13 to 15 years, and a captive bird is recorded past 28.
Why are female cardinals not red?
Their muted tan-and-red plumage is camouflage. The female does almost all the incubating, sitting still on an exposed nest in shrubby cover, and a drab bird is far harder for a hawk or jay to spot than a brilliant red one. The trade-off is reversed in the male, whose color advertises his fitness to her.
What is the difference between a cardinal and a scarlet tanager?
Both are brilliant red, but the cardinal has a tall crest, a thick orange seed-cracking bill, and a black mask, and it keeps its color all year. A male scarlet tanager has no crest, a paler bill, jet-black wings and tail against the red, and it molts to olive-yellow for winter and leaves for South America.