With its pointed crest and for its striking cardinal-red color alone, the northern cardinal is not only easy to notice, but also to remember and to appreciate. Lucky for us, it never leaves the home place.
November is fall’s fulcrum — the time when winter soon comes in earnest to slowly settle over the land like a thickening shadow. A whole host of bird species that chirped and tweeted and bounded over our yards and parks, fields and woodlots over the summer has long since left for warmer climes in the Deep South and beyond to South America to ride out our cold spell.
They will be back. But in the meantime, we get to enjoy our delightful redbird. The northern cardinal will still be around, in town and about the countryside — a crimson-red shard with wings, flitting about in shrubs and trees, around wood piles, and along forest edges.
The female northern cardinal sports more muted colors.
The colorful northern cardinal lives over the entirety of Ohio, and that alone is reason enough for the state legislative assembly to name it the official state bird. There are other meritorious reasons that call forth warm approval and high regard.
Its collection of sixteen unique songs is one good reason. The northern cardinal never stops singing throughout the year. Spring brings with it a crescendo of bird song from those recently arrived from the South as they prepare to nest, claiming aloud what is their own turf; the bachelor birds vociferously call out their eligibility.
But our redbird goes at it throughout the year, most commonly calling out a sharp singular chirp that sounds like an icepick hitting a piece of stainless steel — a call reserved for warning other family members of potential danger. Boldly perched atop shrubs and trees where all can see, a male northern cardinal sings out a serried sharp pur-tee, pur-tee, pur-tee with an upswing at the end. They also let out a cheer, cheer, cheer, with descending notes. Winter, spring, summer — or in November — their crisp calls arc through the air like hot sparks.
Much of their song is territorial in nature, staking out and defending their nesting sites and offspring. With the passing of winter, cardinals claim nest sites in trees and shrubs, with males aggressively warding off competing males. In courtship, the males feed insects and seeds to females.
Cardinals are by nature accustomed to laying only a few grayish-white speckled eggs that are tended to by both parents through incubation and fledging. That’s a period less than two weeks long. Putting less energy into brooding only a few eggs at a time allows cardinals to produce multiple broods going as late as August. Scientists have determined that cardinal eggs and fledglings are subjected to high rates of predation by mice and snakes and parasitization by brown-headed cowbirds. The cowbirds lay their eggs in cardinal nests, and the unwitting hosts raise the parasitic baby birds as their own. Only about 30% of cardinal eggs make it to fledglings. So cardinals produce multiple broods through the nesting period to get along. Cardinals fledged any later than August would not be fit and ready to face the perils of the arduous winter that is sure to follow.
But winter has beauty all its own. It is easy to imagine a leafless maple, or pines or red cedars, draped in snow and a redbird flitting about, a scenario that might leave a little fluttering in your heart on a cold, snowy day.
The cardinal impressed American culture; it is the official bird of seven states, and the Amtrak train the Cardinal runs through six of them on its glide between New York City and Chicago, including a stop in Cincinnati. It’s the mascot of sports teams, professional and collegiate, such as Otterbein University and Wheeling University; 14 Ohio high schools own a cardinal mascot.
What’s not to appreciate about the cardinal? As Ohio nature writer Julie Zickefoose puts forth in her book, The Bluebird Effect, “The presence of a single bird can change everything for one who appreciates them.”
So, put out a bird feeder this fall and get a closer look at the state bird. You might even consider taking part in Project Feeder Watch, which offers feeding tips. You can casually watch birds at home and contribute bird-watching data that will be useful to scientists at Cornell University and elsewhere. Participants can start at any time.
