Why are male cardinals so standout red? If we can see a red bird, predators can, too (last winter I saw a Cooper's hawk easily snatch a male cardinal out of a shrub tangle). Researchers found that as cardinals mature they put less time and effort into singing and more into caring for and defending their young. Cardinals with less complex and shorter songs turn out to hold better-quality territories and their nests turn out more young cardinals than those who put more into singing. You might think that older, more mature birds would sing the most complex songs, but that doesn't hold true. For this reason, a cardinal territory may vary in size from two to 10 acres (a football field covers about one acre).Ĭardinals are a much-studied bird and there are some fascinating new findings. Where food is abundant, a cardinal family can survive in a smaller territory, but if it's scarce, a larger territory is needed to sustain a brood. Males may battle so fiercely that they lock feet and peck and bite at each other as they tumble to the ground.Ĭardinals fight to hold a good nesting territory, determined by the quality of the habitat - how much cover it offers in terms of trees and shrubs, and how much promise it holds for providing insects for nestlings. They fly heedlessly, weaving between tree branches and through traffic, at times grappling in the air. Two or three males will whip through the back yard, almost beak to tail. If songs aren't enough, males will even fight to drive off a competitor.
When males sing alone, they're announcing they've staked out a territory and warning other cardinals to stay away. Most female songbirds don't sing, so this countersinging between the sexes sets cardinals apart. Northern cardinals are a treat to see any time of the year, standing out against the snow in winter, but so welcome in early spring, when few other birds are making music.Īs breeding season rolls around, male and female cardinals are singing to each other to build their pair bond and prepare themselves to mate and raise their brood. They'd be hard to miss, those brilliant red birds on the tops of the trees, singing a song that sounds like spring.
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