What do they look like?

Northern cardinals are medium-sized songbirds. Males are bright red all over except for a black mask on their face. Females are light brown or light greenish-brown, with reddish highlights. They do not have a black mask (but parts of their face may be dark). Both males and females have thick, orange-red, cone-shaped bills. They also have a long tail, and a distinctive crest of feathers on the top of their heads. Males are slightly larger than females. Males are 22.2 to 23.5 cm long whereas females are 20.9 to 21.6 cm long. Adult cardinals weigh 42 to 48 g. Young cardinals look similar to females, but they have a gray-black bill.

Where in the world do they live?

Northern cardinals are native to the Nearctic region. They are found throughout eastern and central North America from southern Canada into parts of Mexico and Central America. They have also been introduced to California, Hawaii and Bermuda.

What kind of habitat do they need?

Northern cardinals have a preference for the edges of woods, hedgerows, and vegetation around houses. This may be partially responsible for the increase in their population since the early 1800's. Cardinals also benefit from the large numbers of humans who feed them and other seed-eating birds with backyard bird feeders. Cardinals prefer to build their nests in dense thickets.

How do they reproduce?

Northern cardinals are monogamous (one male mates with one female). However, occasionally one male will mate with more than one female. Even though they usually form a breeding pair with one partner, northern cardinals frequently copulate with cardinals other than their mate.

Northern cardinals begin forming breeding pairs in early spring. The male begins trying to attract a mate by performing physical displays that show off his crest and his bright red feathers. Once he finds a female that may be interested, the male feeds her. This is called courtship feeding. Breeding pairs may stay together year-round, and may breed together for several years.

Northern cardinals breed between March and September. They usually raise two broods a year, one beginning around March and the second in late May to July. The female builds the nest in dense shrubs and vines. She then lays about 3 white to greenish eggs. She begins incubating after she has laid the last eggs. The female incubates the eggs for 11 to 13 days until they hatch. While the female is incubating the eggs, the male brings food to her. After the chicks have hatched, the female broods them for the first 2 days. Both parents feed insects to the chicks. Both parents also remove fecal sacs from the nest to keep it clean. The chicks begin leaving the nest about 9 to 10 days after hatching. The parents continue to feed them for 25 to 56 days after they fledge from the nest. After leaving or being driven out of their parents' territory, young birds often join flocks with other young birds. They may begin breeding the next spring.

The female northern cardinal builds the nest and incubates the eggs. When the chicks hatch, they have no feathers or down, so the female broods them to protect them and keep them warm for at least 2 days. Both parents feed the chicks a diet of insects. They also remove the nestlings' fecal sacs from the nest to keep it clean. After the chicks have fledged from the nest, the parents continue to feed them for 25 to 56 days.

How long do they live?

The oldest wild cardinal banded by researchers lived at least 15 years and 9 months.

How do they behave?

Northern cardinals are not migratory; they are year-round residents throughout their range. They are active during the day, especially during the morning and evening hours. In winter, most cardinals flock and roost together. During the breeding season, they are quite territorial.

Home Range

In one study in northern Kentucky, the winter home ranges of northern cardinals were estimated to be about .212 square kilometers.

How do they communicate with each other?

Northern cardinals use mostly songs and body signals to communicate. Male and female cardinals both sing. Their songs are loud, beautiful whistled phrases. Some songs you may hear sound like "whoit whoit whoit " and "whacheer whacheer." These songs are used to defend territories and to attract mates. Male and female cardinals use "chip" calls to keep contact with their mate and to signal alarm. They may also signal alarm using body signals, such as "tail-flicks" and raising and lowering the crest of feathers on top of their head.

What do they eat?

Most of what northern cardinals eat is weed and sunflower seeds, grains, and fruits. They prefer seeds that are easily husked. They also eat some insects and feed their young almost exclusively insects. Northern cardinals are less choosy during winter when food is harder to find.

Northern cardinals drink water by scooping it into their bill and tipping their head back.

What eats them and how do they avoid being eaten?

Adult northern cardinals are eaten by domestic cats, domestic dogs, Cooper's hawks, loggerhead shrikes, northern shrikes, eastern gray squirrels, long-eared owls and eastern screech-owls. Nestlings and eggs are eaten by snakes, birds and small mammals. Predators of eggs and nestlings include milk snakes, black racers, pilot black snakes, blue jays, fox squirrels, red squirrels and eastern chipmunks. Brown-headed cowbirds also take cardinal eggs from the nest and sometimes eat them.

When a predator comes near a cardinal nest, both male and female northern cardinals give an alarm call that is a short, chipping note. They also fly toward the predator to try to scare it away. Northern cardinals do not mob predators like other songbirds do.

What roles do they have in the ecosystem?

Because northern cardinals eat large quantities of seeds and fruits, they may help disperse seeds for some plants. They may also have an effect on the composition of plant communities because they are seed predators and seed dispersers.

Northern cardinals provide food for their predators. They also sometimes raise the chicks of brown-headed cowbirds that lay eggs in their nests. This helps local brown-headed cowbird populations. Northern cardinals also provide habitat for many internal and external parasites.

Do they cause problems?

We do not know of any way that northern cardinals harm humans.

How do they interact with us?

Northern cardinals affect humans by dispersing seeds and eating insect pests such as boll weevils, cutworms, and caterpillars. They are also an attractive visitor to backyard birdfeeders.

Are they endangered?

Northern cardinals appear to have become more common over the past 200 years. They have also expanded their range into new areas. This expansion is probably due to additional habitat that was created by humans. There are about 100,000,000 northern cardinals in the world. They are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Act.

Some more information...

Northern cardinals are also known as common cardinals, cardinal grosbeaks, red-birds, Virginia nightingales, cardinal-birds, cardinal red-birds, Virginia redbirds, crested redbirds and top-knot redbirds.

Contributors

Kari Kirschbaum (author, editor), Animal Diversity Web Staff: January, 2005.

Jonathan Crane (author), University of Michigan: July, 2001.

Tanya Dewey (author), Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

References

Farrand Jr., J. 1988. Western Birds. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Halkin, S., S. Linville. 1999. Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). Pp. 1-32 in A. Poole, F. Gill, eds. The Birds of North America, Vol. 440. Philadelphia, PA: The Birds of North America.

Hickman, C., L. Roberts. 1995. Animal Diversity. Boston: William C. Brown.

Kielb, M., J. Swales, R. Wolinski. 1992. The Birds of Washtenaw County, Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

Reiner, L. 1989. High altitude capture of a northern cardinal. North American Bird Bander, 14 (4): 125.

Searles, R. 1989. Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). Passenger Pigeon, 51: 236.