Northern cardinal

The northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), also commonly known as the common cardinal, red cardinal, or simply cardinal, is a bird in the genus Cardinalis. It can be found in southeastern Canada, through the eastern United States from Maine to Minnesota to Texas, New Mexico, southern Arizona, southern California and south through Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. It is also an introduced species in a few locations such as Bermuda and all major islands of Hawaii since its introduction in 1929. Its habitat includes woodlands, gardens, shrublands, and wetlands. It is the state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The northern cardinal is a mid-sized perching songbird with a body length of and a crest on the top of its head. The species expresses sexual dimorphism: 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. Juvenile cardinals do not have the distinctive red-orange beak seen in adult birds until they are almost fully mature. On hatching, their beaks are grayish-black and they do not become the trademark orange-red color until they acquire their final adult plumage in the fall.

The northern cardinal is mainly granivorous but also feeds on insects and fruit. The male behaves territorially, marking out his territory with song. During courtship, the male feeds seed to the female beak-to-beak. The northern cardinal's clutch typically contains three to four eggs, with two to four clutches produced each year. It was once prized as a pet, but its sale was banned in the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Taxonomy

The northern cardinal was described by Carl Linnaeus in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It was originally categorized as Loxia cardinalis, a genus which now contains only crossbills. In 1838, it was recategorized as Cardinalis virginianus. In 1918, the scientific name was sometimes replaced with Richmondena cardinalis. In 1983, the scientific name was changed again to Cardinalis cardinalis and the common name was changed to "northern cardinal" to avoid confusion with the several other species also termed cardinals. The term "northern" in the common name refers to its range, as it is the northernmost cardinal species known. The male averages slightly larger than the female.

The oldest wild cardinal banded by researchers lived at least 15 years and 9 months, although 28.5 years was achieved by a captive bird. Annual survival rates for adult northern cardinals have been estimated at 60–65%.

Plumage

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. Young birds, both male and female, show coloring similar to the adult female until the fall, when they molt and grow adult feathers. They are brown above and red-brown below, with brick-colored crest, forehead, wings, and tail.

The plumage color of the males is produced from carotenoid pigments in the diet. Coloration is produced from both red 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.

Distribution and habitat

Northern cardinals are numerous across the eastern United States from the southern half of Maine to Minnesota to the Texas-Mexico border and in Canada in the southern portions of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, all the way east to Cape Breton Island. Its range also extends south through Mexico to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, northern Guatemala, and northern Belize. An allopatric population is found on the Pacific slope of Mexico from Jalisco to Oaxaca (this population is not shown on the range map). The species was introduced to Bermuda in 1700. It has also been introduced in Hawaii. Its natural habitat is in woodlands, gardens, shrublands, and wetlands. In cold temperatures, cardinals will shiver and tense their muscles, especially breast muscles, to generate heat. Cardinals have the ability to drop their body temperature if needed in order to survive cold temperatures.

Songs

Both sexes sing clear, whistled song patterns, which are repeated several times, then varied. Some common phrases are described as "cheeeer-a-dote, cheeer-a-dote-dote-dote", "purdy, purdy, purdy...whoit, whoit, whoit, whoit", "what-cheer, what-cheer... wheet, wheet, wheet, wheet" and "cheer, cheer, cheer, what, what, what, what".

Territoriality

The northern cardinal is a territorial song bird. The male sings in a loud, clear whistle from the top of a tree or another high location to defend his territory. He will chase off other males entering his territory. He may mistake his image on various reflective surfaces as an invading male and will fight his reflection relentlessly. The northern cardinal learns its songs, and as a result the songs vary regionally. Mated pairs often travel together. The songs of a northern cardinal will usually overlap more in syllables when compared to other northern cardinals near it than those far away from it.

Diet

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.

File:Northern Cardinal, Bethesda Service Center, Boynton Beach, FL, USA imported from iNaturalist photo 64496299.jpg|Adult male with a grasshopper

File:Cardinal with raspberries.jpg|Male cardinal feeding on American beautyberry at Okeeheelee Nature Center, Florida

File:A Male Northern Cardinal.jpg|A male northern cardinal feeding on a bird feeder

</gallery>

Reproduction

thumb|The male often feeds the female as part of their courtship behavior.

Pairs may mate for successive years, but some also "divorce" between seasons or choose a new mate when one dies. Pairs generally stay together year-round but are not necessarily monogamous. DNA studies of two populations of cardinals found that 9–35% of nestlings were not fathered by the female's mate.

Eggs

There are usually three or four eggs per nest, though there are sometimes as few as one or as many as five. The shell is smooth and slightly glossy.

Nestlings

Newly hatched cardinals weigh an average of 3–3.5 grams,

The northern cardinal is found in residential areas throughout its range. Bird feeders attract it by using feeders containing seeds, particularly sunflower seeds and safflower seeds. An increase in backyard feeding by humans has increased the range of this species, with an estimated global range of and a global population of some 100 million.

Cardinals were once prized as pets due to their bright color and distinctive song. In the United States, this species is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which also banned their sale as cage birds. It is illegal to take, kill, or possess northern cardinals, and violation of the law is punishable by a fine of up to US$15,000 and imprisonment of up to six months. It is also protected by the Convention for the Protection of Migratory Birds in Canada.

A study conducted in 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia, on West Nile virus transmission in the United States found that unlike other species, northern cardinals biologically suppress the disease upon infection.

Mascot

In the United States, the northern cardinal (referred to as just "cardinal") is the mascot of numerous athletic teams; however, most teams portray the bird with a yellow beak and legs. In professional sports, it is the mascot of the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball's National League and the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League, which for many years were also based in St. Louis. In college athletics, it is the mascot of many schools, including Ball State University, The Catholic University of America, Illinois State University, the University of the Incarnate Word, Lamar University, the University of Louisville, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, North Central College, North Idaho College, Otterbein University, Saint John Fisher College, the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Wesleyan University, Wheeling University, and William Jewell College.

U.S. state bird

The northern cardinal is the state bird of seven U.S. states, more than any other species: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia; although in each case the particular state just refers to the bird as "cardinal". It was also a candidate to become the state bird of Delaware but lost to the Delaware Blue Hen. Because the cardinal is the state bird of the six states along its route, the Amtrak passenger train between Chicago and Washington DC bears the name of the bird as well.

Subspecies

There are 19 subspecies:

C. c. cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758)
C. c. affinis Nelson, 1899
C. c. canicaudus Chapman, 1891
C. c. carneus (Lesson, 1842)
C. c. clintoni (Banks, 1963)
C. c. coccineus Ridgway, 1873
C. c. flammiger J.L. Peters, 1913
C. c. floridanus Ridgway, 1896
C. c. igneus S.F. Baird, 1860
C. c. littoralis Nelson, 1897
C. c. magnirostris Bangs, 1903
C. c. mariae Nelson, 1898
C. c. phillipsi Parkes, 1997
C. c. saturatus Ridgway, 1885
C. c. seftoni (Huey, 1940)
C. c. sinaloensis Nelson, 1899
C. c. superbus Ridgway, 1885
C. c. townsendi (van Rossem, 1932)
C. c. yucatanicus Ridgway, 1887

References

External links

Article on cardinal's songs from Columbia University
Florida bird sounds, including the northern cardinal - Florida Museum of Natural History