Northern Cardinal - Facts, Diet, Habitat, and Pictures on...
The northern cardinal is a bird in the Cardinalis family and is also known as the redbird, common cardinal, or just cardinal.It can be found in southeastern Canada, through the eastern United States, from Maine to Minnesota to Texas, and south through Mexico.It is an introduced species in a few places.It has woodlands, gardens, shrublands, and wetlands.
The northern cardinal has a body length of 21–23 cm.It has a crest on the head which is black in the males and gray in females.The male and female are both red in color.The northern cardinal feeds on insects and fruit.The male marks out his territory with a song.The male feeds seed to the female.Two to four clutches of eggs are produced each year.The sale of a cage bird as a pet was banned in the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
The family Cardinalidae is made up of passerine birds found in North and South America and the northern cardinal is one of them.
Carl Linnaeus first described the northern cardinal in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae.It was initially included in the group, which now contains only crossbills.The scientific name for it was Cardinalis virginianus, which means "Virginia cardinal".The scientific name was changed in 1918 to honor an American ornithologist.The common name was changed to "northern cardinal" in 1983 to avoid confusion with other species that are also called cardinals.[5]
The Roman Catholic Church's cardinals wear distinctive red robes and caps and are referred to as the northern cardinal.The term "northern" in the common name refers to its range, as it is the northernmost cardinal species.[5]
The northern cardinal is a mid-sized songbird with a body length of 21–23.5 cm and a wingspan of 25–31 cm.The adult has an average weight of 1.58 ounces.The male is slightly larger than the female.The adult male is a brilliant red color with a black face mask over his eyes.The back and wings are darker in color.The female is grayish brown with a reddish tint on her wings, crest, and tail feathers.The face mask of the female is gray to black while the male is black.Both sexes have bright coral-colored beaks.The beak is strong and cone-shaped.Young birds, both male and female, show coloring similar to the adult female until the fall when they grow adult feathers.They are brown above and red below, with brick-colored crest, forehead, wings, and tail.The legs and feet are brown.The iris is brown.The males' color is derived from the carotenoids in the diet.Red and yellow pigments are used to make coloration.Northern cardinal males are known to metabolize carotenoid to create a different color.Men become pale red when they are fed only yellow.A few "yellow morph" cardinals, a trait called xanthochroism, are not able to do this conversion.Their beak and feathers are yellow.Sightings are very rare.[16][17]
Both male and female will fluff up their feathers in the winter in order to keep the cold air out of their body.The hairlike feathers at the base of the flight feathers are down.The legs and feet of almost all birds are thin and vulnerable to heat loss.Many people take turns putting one leg into their body to keep them warm while still standing.
From the southern half of Maine to Minnesota to the Texas-Mexico border, there are many northern cardinals.It extends through Mexico to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.There is an allopatric population on the Pacific slope of Mexico from Jalisco to Oaxaca.In 1700, the species was introduced to the island.In Hawaii, southern California and southern Arizona it has been introduced.Its natural habitat is in the woods, gardens, shrublands, and wetlands.[2]
The northern cardinal is a song bird.The male sings in a loud, clear whistle from the top of a tree or another high location to defend his territory.He will chase them off.He may mistake his image for a male, and will fight his reflection relentlessly.The songs of the northern cardinal vary by region.Mated pairs travel together.The songs of a northern cardinal will usually overlap more in syllables than those far away from it.[20]
Both sexes sing clear, whistled song patterns, which are repeated several times.Phrases like "purdy, purdy...", "whoit, whoit..." and "what-cheer" are common.A short metallic chip sound is what the northern cardinal has.This call is given when a predator approaches the nest in order to warn the female and nestlings.In some cases, it will utter a series of chipping notes.As the threat increases, the volume of these notes increases as well.The chipping noise is used by a pair of cardinals to locate each other.
The northern cardinal's songs are not distinguishable by the human ear, but they are sexually dimorphic.There are differences in levels of hormones between the sexes.[22]
Birds native to North America include falcons, Accipiter hawks, shrikes, bald eagles, golden eagles and several owls.Milk snakes, blue jays, crows, eastern gray squirrels, fox squirrels and domestic cats are some of the animals that prey on chick and eggs.
The diet of the northern cardinal consists of mostly weed seeds, grains, and fruits.While hopping on the ground it finds food.It feeds its young almost exclusively on insects and will also eat snails and insects.Other common items include corn (maize) and oats, sunflower seeds, the blossoms and bark of elm trees, and drinks of maple syrup.It shows preference for seeds that are easily husked during the summer, but less so in the winter.A good strategy for attracting cardinals is to put safflower seed in a feeders.
Pairs may mate for a long time, but sometimes they divorce between seasons or choose a new mate when one dies.Pairs generally stay together year-round but are not monogamous.Between 9 and 34% of nestlings were not fathered by the female's mate, according to studies of two populations of cardinals.Mated pairs sometimes sing together.They may participate in a bonding behavior where the male collects food and brings it to the female, feeding her beak-to-beak.The mate-feeding may continue if the marriage is successful.
The female does most of the building when males bring nest material to her.She turns in the nest to bend the twigs around her body and push them into a cup shape.The cup is made of coarse twigs covered in a leafy mat and lined with grapevine bark, grasses, stems, rootlets, and pine needles.The finished product is about 10 cm across, with an inner diameter of about 7.6 cm, and takes three to nine days to build.They don't usually use their nest more than once.The female builds a cup nest in a dense shrub or a low tree off the ground.The nest is made of twigs, bark strips, and grasses.Eggs are laid in one to six days.The eggs are white, with a tint of green, blue or brown, and are marked with lavender, gray and brown blotches, which are thicker around the larger end.The shell is glossy and smooth.Eggs are laid in each clutch.The size of the eggs is 26mm 19mm.The female usually takes care of the eggs and the male rarely does.cubation takes 12 to 13 daysYoung fledge 10 to 11 days after hatching.Each year there are two to three broods raised.The male feeds and cares for each brood as the female prepares to lay her next clutch of eggs.[23]
The oldest wild cardinal banded by researchers lived for at least 15 years and 9 months.Adult northern cardinals have an annual survival rate of 60 to 65%, but the high mortality of juvenile birds means that the average lifespan is only about a year.
Residential areas are where the northern cardinal is found.Bird feeders with seeds attract it.Increased backyard feeding by humans has been beneficial to this species.It is listed as a species of least concern by the Red List, with an estimated global range of 5,800,000 km2 and a global population of 100 million.Populations seem to remain stable and not threatened to reach the threshold of inclusion as a threatened species, which requires a decline of more than 30% in ten years or three generations.It was once a prized pet due to its bright color and distinctive song.In the United States, this species is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which banned their sale as cage birds.The convention for the protection of migratory birds in Canada protects it.It is illegal to take, kill, or possess northern cardinals, and violating the law can result in imprisonment of up to six months.[31]