Northern Cardinal
The male Northern Cardinal is hard to miss with his distinctive shade of red. They always catch my attention and I enjoy watching this bird. I see these birds in my yard throughout the year. It is the state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The adult male is a brilliant crimson red color with a black face mask over the eyes, extending to the upper chest. The color becomes duller and darker on the back and wings.
The plumage color of the males is produced from carotenoid pigments in the diet. Coloration is produced from both red pigments and yellow carotenoid pigments. Northern cardinal males metabolize carotenoid pigments to create plumage pigmentation of a color different from the ingested pigment. When fed only yellow pigments, males become a pale red color.
Nearly any bird feeder you put out ought to attract Northern Cardinals, but they particularly seem to like sunflower seeds. I replaced my cheaper bird seed for a mix with more sunflower seeds in the hope to attract more Northern Cardinals.
The northern cardinal is mainly granivorous, but also feeds on insects and fruit. The diet of the adult northern cardinal consists mainly (up to 90%) of weed seeds, grains, and fruits. It is a ground feeder and finds food while hopping on the ground through trees or shrubbery. It will also consume snails and insects, including beetles, cicadas, and grasshoppers, and the young are fed almost entirely on insects.
Females are a reddish olive color, and have a gray mask around the beak, while males are a vibrant red color, and have a black mask on the face, as well as a larger crest. Females resemble males, including the face and bill, but are predominantly pale-brown overall—varying from buffy to grayish—with dark reddish-brown wings and tail, red in the crest, and a variable pinkish flush elsewhere on the head and body.
Both sexes possess prominent raised crests and bright coral-colored beaks.
