Introduction to Cardinal
Cardinal, a North American songbird of the finch family. Its natural range extends from western and southern Ontario, Canada, southward throughout most of the United States and into Mexico and Belize. In addition, the cardinal has been successfully introduced into Hawaii and Bermuda. It is the state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The cardinal is a North American songbird of the finch family.The cardinal, or “red bird” as it is popularly known in the southern states, is about nine inches (23 cm) long. The male has brilliant red plumage except for black face and neck feathers. The female has brownish-gray plumage with splashes of red. Both sexes have a high crest of feathers on top of the head. The song is a series of clear whistles.
The cardinal makes its nest in low trees, in bushes, or in thickets. It lays two to four eggs, which are white with shadings of purple and brown. The bird feeds on weed seeds, grain, and insects.
How Does a Cardinal Make Its Music?Like all songbirds, the cardinal has a windpipe, or trachea (TRAY kee uh), inside its chest. At the base of the trachea is a special organ that only birds have. It is called a syrinx (SIHR ihnks). The cardinal uses its syrinx to produce sound and music.
Inside the syrinx are two thin membranes, or sheets. The sheets vibrate, or move back and forth rapidly, when air passes over them. As a cardinal sings, air is pushed out of its lungs and over the sheets. The vibrations create sound.
The syrinx has several muscles attached to it. As the muscles tighten and relax, different sounds are produced. A bird that can't sing has only a few muscles attached to its syrinx. But a songbird may have as many as nine pairs of muscles attached to its syrinx. These muscles allow the songbird to make different musical sounds.
Why Does a Cardinal Sing?A male cardinal sings for two main reasons. He sings as a warning to other males. His song tells them to stay out of his territory. He also sings to “advertise” that he is looking for a mate. This is why his song is called an advertising song.With most songbirds, only the males sing. But with cardinals, the females also sing. A female cardinal often repeats the song her mate sings. A pair of cardinals may sing to each other all day long.
Each cardinal can sing about 10 different songs. Cardinals also have one call that’s all their own. It’s a high-pitched “Chip!” Other calls sound like “What cheer, what cheer!” and “Wheat, wheat, wheat.”
Are All Cardinals Red?A male cardinal is bright red all over. In fact, he is the only North American red bird with a crest, or tuft of feathers, on his head. A female cardinal is mostly dull brown. But she does have a red crest, tail, and wings. Both the male and the female have black “masks” near their red-orange beaks.
Northern cardinals are one kind of cardinal. There are other kinds of cardinals living farther south. Many of these other cardinals are not all red. Yellow cardinals, for example, live in South America. Yellow cardinals are mostly yellow in color.
One cardinal, the gray cardinal, shares areas of the southwestern United States and Mexico with the northern cardinal. Both males and females look like female northern cardinals. But gray cardinals—unlike northern cardinals—have crooked, yellow beaks.
What Happens When a Cardinal Molts?Cardinals, like all other birds, molt. When a bird molts, it loses a few feathers at a time. When new feathers grow in their place, the bird loses a few more. A cardinal molts at least once a year, usually in late summer or early fall.
A cardinal needs some of its feathers for flying. When the bird molts, it sheds only a few flying feathers at a time. That way, the cardinal can keep on flying even while it is molting.
A cardinal must work hard to keep its feathers in good shape. It uses its beak to preen, or clean, each feather. A cardinal must also take baths. First, the bird dips its head into a puddle or a birdbath. Then it beats its wings to spread the water all over its body.
Cardinal Food and Lodging
As adults, cardinals mainly eat seeds, fruits, and nuts. But a cardinal’s favorite food is sunflower seeds. The bird’s short, strong beak is perfect for cracking the seeds open. The cardinal bites hard on the shell until it cracks apart. Then the bird eats the soft kernel inside.
In winter, cardinals often visit bird feeders filled with seeds. They also visit barnyards, where they may find corn to eat.
In summer, cardinals also eat insects and worms. They eat cotton worms and potato beetles, which may otherwise harm a farmer’s crops. They also eat codling moths, which can destroy apple crops.
How Do Cardinal Chicks Get Food?After cardinal chicks hatch, both parents feed them. The parents give their chicks insects, such as caterpillars, beetles, cicadas, and grasshoppers.
Cardinal chicks need to be fed often. The parents bring food about four times an hour. This helps the chicks grow quickly.
By the time they are 10 days old, the cardinal chicks are ready to fly from the nest. But this requires practice! At first, the chicks are able to fly only about 15 feet (4.6 meters) at a time.
Even after young cardinals leave the nest, the father continues to feed them for a while. He also shows them how to find food on their own. Meanwhile, the mother builds a new nest to get ready for another brood, or group of young.
By September, a pair of cardinals may raise up to four broods.
How Does a Cardinal Build a Nest?In the spring, male and female cardinals pair off to mate. The female then begins to build a nest. She chooses a safe spot in a bush or on a low tree branch. Usually the nest is about 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) above the ground.
The female cardinal builds her nest with dead leaves, grass, and twigs. She weaves the material together, shaping the nest like a bowl. She lines the nest with grass or roots. Usually, she finishes the job in three to nine days.
When Does a Cardinal Lay Her Eggs?A few days after building a nest, a cardinal lays her eggs. She usually produces three to five eggs at a time. The eggs are grayish-white with brown spots and many speckles. The female sits on the eggs to keep them warm.
While the female tends the eggs, the male goes off to find food. When he finds food, the male may sing to his mate to get her attention. She then meets him away from the nest, where he feeds her. He may even bring the food right to the nest.
Cardinal eggs hatch in 12 or 13 days. At birth, all the chicks—even the males—look like their mother. Their dull brown color helps them blend in with the nest. It keeps them safe from snakes and other enemies that look for chicks to eat. When a male chick molts for the first time, it grows bright red feathers—like its father.
Do Cardinals Have Any Enemies?Like other songbirds, cardinals have many enemies. Cats, hawks, and owls hunt adult cardinals. Blue jays, wrens, and snakes try to get at cardinal eggs or chicks in the nest.
One of a cardinal’s sneakiest enemies is the brown-headed cowbird. It waits for a time when the cardinals leave their nests. It steals an egg from the nest. The next day, the cowbird lays its own egg in the nest. The female cardinal sits on the egg until it hatches. Then she raises the baby cowbird as her own.
Cardinals have tiny enemies, too. They include fleas, lice, mites, and ticks. These pests suck blood from the birds. This can cause the birds to die. But a cardinal knows how to fight back. It picks up several ants with its beak. It rubs its feathers with the angry ants, which squirt acid. Scientists think that the acid makes some of these pests go away.
The cardinal is Cardinalis cardinalis of the subfamily Cardinalinae in the family Emberizidae.