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Northern Cardinal

 

A male Northern Cardinal is perched on top of a post. Green leaves of a tree can be seen blurred in the background. The bird is bright red with black markings on its face, and some darker feathers around its wing and tail. It has an orangish-red beak.

Northern Cardinals are beautiful birds, so it's no surprise that they're the state bird of not one, not two, but seven states. This one was perched on a post with a bird feeder. Several birds were pausing on a nearby gate or on this post before swooping in to grab a bite. 

If you see a Northern Cardinal near your house, you might as well wave and say "Howdy, neighbor!" These birds tend to stick close to home, typically settling down no more than a mile away from their birthplace.[1]

One thing I love about Northern Cardinals is how often I see them in pairs. Often I'll see a male or female cardinal and then spot their spouse on a nearby branch. When Northern Cardinals court, they sway together and sing to each other.[2] When nesting, the female lays up to five eggs and sits on them for just under 2 weeks.[3] Males are bright red (pictured above), females are brown (pictured below), and juvenile cardinals are a funny watercolor of red and brown—you can see one at the 0:21 mark in the video at the end of this post. 

A female Northern Cardinal sits on a metal gate. Behind the bird, green leaves can be seen, which are blurred. The bird is brown, with a reddish-brown tinge on the crest of its head and on its wings. It has an orange beak.—

School children in Illinois were the first to choose the Northern Cardinal to be their state bird, where it was awarded the honor in 1929.[4] At seven states, the Northern Cardinal leads the state birds, followed by the Western Meadowlark at six states.[5] Incidentally, all of the states where the Northern Cardinal is the state bird are connected through borders: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky. If that's not an excuse to have some kind of a giant Northern Cardinal fest, them I'm not sure what is.



The Details

Common Name: Northern Cardinal
Scientific Name: Cardinalis cardinalis (Hey look! A tautonym!)
Family: Cardinalidae
Seen: In a yard with a bird feeder
Months: September (Video and male cardinal) & June (Female cardinal)
Range: The Northern Cardinal is mostly found in the eastern half of the United States.[6] The western edge of its range can be found as far as Arizona in the south. North of that, it can be found along parts of parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota (its range also dips slightly into Colorado). Southward, its range extends into Mexico. See the helpful range map on the Cornell Lab's website to see if they are found where you are.


Learn More About Northern Cardinals:

  1. New Hampshire PBS. (n.d.). Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis. Nature Works.
  2. Audubon. (n.d.). Northern Cardinal. [Note: The website has a note that the bird guide text was adapted from Lives of North American Birds by Kenn Kaufman© 1996]
  3. Sun, A. (2022). Birds: An illustrated field guide. Whalen Book Works.
  4. Illinois Department of Natural Resources. (n.d.). Illinois state symbols.
  5. Munson, O. (2023, July 25). State birds across America: See every state bird across the United States. USA Today. 
  6. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.). Northern Cardinal: Range map. All About Birds.


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