Northern Cardinal


Cardinals
A few weeks ago I put our winter bird feeders back up, and almost immediately we were rewarded with our “local” birds coming to check out what was on offer. We put out several feeders in a couple of locations, mainly three tube sunflower seed feeders and a low platform of essentially scratch and two suet feeders. Our regular birds are species like chickadees, various sparrows, Blue Jays and so on, but occasionally we can entice some of our more cautious residents out.
The Cardinal, technically the Northern Cardinal, is a showy bird, but due I suspect to the male’s bright red colour is a tad nervous at the feeding stations here in the open near the shore. We have 6 resident Cardinals right now – this summer we had two pairs hanging around the property, so either we have off-spring or a new pair here! I saw one of the males chasing another male, so the theory of a new-comer could be what’s happened, but in any case it’s neat to have them around.
It’s fun to feed the birds and see what comes around, and I’m looking forward to the annual Christmas Bird Count, which happens in a couple of weeks. I think the Cardinals are very much a happy Christmas count addition – certainly they are all decked out in the appropriate colours!