You must locate by sight which two are singing to be sure what the birds are communicating – are they singing to strengthen the bond between a mated pair, or are they singing to settle a property dispute?Ĭalls are much simpler. Antiphonal singing between a courting pair and between two rival males in separate territories is indistinguishable. Cardinals’ call and response countersinging can continue for good parts of the day. After a little while, the first bird changes the song and the other copies the new song. One bird sings a phrase and the other responds, often with an exact recapitulation of the first one’s song. In either context, while perched in different places, they countersing. Cardinal song varies from bird to bird, from day to day and from one region to another.Ĭardinals sing during courtship and territory formation. Short phrases of clear whistled notes are repeated several times before being varied.
![male cardinal male cardinal](https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/male-cardinal-on-branch-h-h-fox-photography.jpg)
They sing clear, rich whistled songs in every month of the year, phonetically described as what cheer, what cheer or whoit, whoit, whoit or wheat, wheat, wheat or tew, tew, tew. Song, an important coordinating behavior in the life of a cardinal, includes at least 28 different phrases. A bird’s call is simpler and serves as an alarm or a means of keeping in contact with other birds in the flock. In case you are wondering what the difference between a song and a call is…A bird’s song is longer and more complex, usually associated with courtship and mating. They are resident from southeast South Dakota, central Minnesota, western and southern Ontario, northwestern Vermont, eastern Massachusetts, south in the eastern states and through central Nebraska, western Kansas, central Texas to northern Mexico, central Louisiana, the Gulf coast of Mississippi, Alabama and Southern Florida, also in southern California, central Arizona, and southwestern New Mexico, south to Baja California and Mexico to Belize. Once a bird associated with the southeastern USA, the birds are steadily expanding their range northward. Northern cardinals are not truly migratory, but when grown, young cardinals wander in all directions. They are often seen in parks and gardens of towns, villages and suburbia. Look for cardinals in dense shrubby thickets - along the borders of fields, edges of woods, in hedges, canebrakes, swamps, and stream banks. Immature cardinals look much like a female, but are browner and have a black bill. Sometimes females are mistaken for our southwestern Pyrrhuloxia, but a closer look reveals a red bill surrounded by black feathers on a brown female cardinal, whereas a grey Pyrrhuloxia has a rounder yellow or bone colored bill, shaped more like a parrot’s and lacks black on the face.
![male cardinal male cardinal](https://live.staticflickr.com/7181/6813719554_a7017a8c50_b.jpg)
Females are predominantly brown on top, olive grey below with reddish wings and crest and a red/pink bill. His massive thick red bill is surrounded by black feathers, referred to as its mask. He is the only red bird in North America with a crest. The male is almost entirely bright red, with a red crest that is raised and lowered at will. A hunched over posture, large thick red bill and crest help you know at a glance what bird is gracing your view. The 7-1/2 - 8-1/2 inch long Northern Cardinal often perches on a branch with its tail pointed directly downward. The bird lends its name to a baseball team, the Saint Louis Cardinals, and to our own Arizona Cardinals football team, as well as scores of junior and senior colleges in the USA and Canada. The bird has many common names - redbird, cardinal grosbeak, Virginia cardinal, Big Red, crested redbird, Kentucky redbird, and Virginia nightingale. Cardinals are so popular that seven states – Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia – have honored them as their state bird.
![male cardinal male cardinal](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x9d3Yy4H-SA/Tasea17xJLI/AAAAAAAAAMI/LKbud_-_kGo/s1600/northern+cardinal+male.jpg)
His coloration, body shape, crest, clear loud song and calls, and willingness to frequent backyard feeders insure notice by observing humans. The intense irresistible red of a male cardinal inspires many people to enter the world of birding for the first time. About our Small Batch Bird Foods by WBS.