Northern Cardinal

Brilliant Colour in the Winter Landscape

Northern Cardinal

 A welcome sight in our bleak winter landscape is the brilliant male Northern Cardinal.  The scarlet colour set off by the black mask and bib delights the receptors in our retinas.  Metaphorically it offers hope for spring and better things to come.

The cardinal is unmistakable with its brilliant red body and crest.  It has a longish tail and an orange red bill.  The female is more subdued with yellows and oranges.  The male cardinal sings beautifully usually from an exposed perch.  The song is a liquid musical sound, denoted sometimes by 'cue, cue, cue, cheer, cheer, cheer or purty, purty, purty' (National Geographic Complete Book of Birds).

Northern Cardinal

While doing a Christmas bird count recently we were twitching a clump of trees at the roadside in the Mactaquac area and out popped a male cardinal!  He stayed long enough to give us ample time to enjoy his beauty and to get the above photos.  That was the third cardinal we found on that count.

The cardinal prefers field, woodland, and stream edges, swamps and urban gardens.  It readily comes to feeders preferring black oil sunflower seeds.  They are such a delight to see, it is well worth trying to entice them to your yard.

Northern Cardinal