Description and features
Cardinals get their name from the bright red plumage of the males and the mask formed by the black color of the feathers around the beak and eye area. The small northern cardinal , found in Canada, the United States and Mexico, is otherwise called the red or Virginia cardinal. One of the features is considered to be the wonderful voice of a small active bird, for which it was nicknamed the Virginia nightingale.
The red cardinal cannot boast of large size. The female individual is slightly smaller than the male, whose weight rarely reaches 50 g. The maximum body length of an adult bird, including the tail, is 25 cm, and its wingspan does not exceed 30 cm.
The cardinal bird in the photo is not as expressive as in its natural environment. The ability of her feather to reflect light makes the color so rich and bright. The appearance of individuals of different sexes differs significantly. Males, called by nature to attract feathered girls with their bright appearance and singing, are unusually elegant.
Their crest, cheek area, chest, and belly are painted scarlet, and the wings and outer plumage of the tail are a darker crimson color with a slight brown haze. A black mask on a scarlet background adds masculinity. The bird's beak is red and its paws are red-brown.
Females look much more modest: gray-brown color, reddish inclusions on the feathers of the crest, wings, tail and a scarlet cone-shaped beak. The lady also has a mask, but it is not so clearly expressed: the feathers around her beak and eyes are dark gray. The young are similar in color to the female. The pupils of all cardinals are brown.
In the north of the continent lives the indigo bunting cardinal, whose plumage is a rich blue color. By the beginning of the mating season, the brightness of the color of the males increases, and when the pair has already been formed, it turns pale again.
Legends about the stork
The name of the bird with a red beak and white plumage appears in many beautiful ancient legends and tales. Since time immemorial, the white stork has been considered a rather revered bird, and it has been associated with prosperity, well-being, good luck and a happy life. There are also many good tales and legends associated with him, both in the East and in Europe, and everywhere he acts as a protector from any evil spirit and as the keeper of the family hearth, bringing happiness.
It was believed that a family whose house a stork flies to will definitely have a long-awaited child, and therefore many families without children relied on the help of this bird.
According to folk legends, God endowed this bird with white plumage, and the devil with black wings, which is why it symbolizes the endless struggle between good and bad, between good and evil.
Lifestyle and habitat
The cardinal bird lives almost throughout the entire territory of both Americas. It appeared in Bermuda only in the 18th century, when people brought several dozen individuals there and bred them artificially. Currently, the cardinals there have completely acclimatized and are reproducing on their own.
The habitat of the northern cardinal is gardens, parks, forested areas, and bushes. In urban areas it is also common, which is due to the absence of excessive timidity in the bird’s character.
This sociable red-feathered bird easily makes contact with humans. From the sparrow she inherited fearlessness, impudent behavior, and thieving habits. It will not be difficult for a cardinal to fly into an open window of a house, feast on everything he finds edible there, and also take food with him.
The sounds produced by the Virginia cardinal are varied. This is a very talkative bird. When communicating calmly with each other, cardinals make soft chirping sounds. The iridescent trills characteristic of males are reminiscent of nightingale songs. And the quiet singing of females is also melodious, but not so varied. When birds are frightened, their chirping becomes a sharp, loud cry.
Listen to the voice of the red cardinal
One of the distinctive features of cardinals is their excellent memory, acquired through many centuries of evolution. They are able to remember all their numerous stashes of pine seeds, which are collected in September and hidden in places known only to them to eat their favorite food all winter.
So, during September, a cardinal can hide up to 100 thousand pine seeds in the rocky environs of the Grand Canyon, which covers about a hundred kilometers, where the red bird likes to settle. Without this ability to remember stashes, the bird will not be able to survive the long winter. Even if the landscape changes under the snow, she finds about 90% of the hidden seeds. The remaining 10% germinates, renewing the forests.
Woodpecker – bird photo
We are used to recognizing woodpeckers by the red “cap” on their heads. But in fact, they are much more diverse. Look!
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Kinds
Different types of cardinals are common in certain areas of the continent. Thus, the Virginia cardinal - the most famous and numerous species - is found mainly in Canada, the USA, Guatemala and Mexico.
Green lives in the territory of modern Uruguay and Argentina. Eastern South America is the territory of the gray cardinal. But the handsome indigo can be found only in the north of the continent, where in addition to it, red and purple (parrot) species are common.
Eminence grise
The gray cardinal is otherwise called the red-crested one. Not only the crest of representatives of this species is red, but also the mask around the beak, eyes, as well as a spot from the throat to the chest in the form of a flowing blot.
The back of the bird, its wings and the upper part of the tail are black and gray, the belly and breast are dirty white. The heterosexual red-crested cardinals are virtually indistinguishable. But if a couple sits side by side, then the female can be distinguished by a less intense head color, not as curved as the male’s, a more elegant beak and the inability to reproduce trills.
The gray cardinal prefers to settle in bushes located along river banks. The pair builds characteristic bowl-shaped nests, placing them on the upper branches of densely growing bushes. The diet of red-crested cardinals consists of insects, tree seeds and grasses.
A clutch of four bluish eggs is incubated by a lady for two weeks. The hatched chicks are fed by both father and mother. Seventeen-day-old babies leave the nest, after which their parents take care of them and feed them for about another 3 weeks.
Parrot cardinal
In the cardinal family, the purple cardinal is the smallest species, which was first described by Napoleon's nephew, ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The area where this bird lives is limited to Venezuela and Colombia.
A total of 20 thousand km² of habitat are subtropical and tropic, where a dry climate predominates. At the same time, the purple cardinal does not like to live in dense forests, preferring bushes and sparse forests. The bird of the species has a wingspan of only 22 cm with a body length of up to 19 cm and a weight of up to 30 g.
When excited, the purple cardinal spreads its crest like a parrot. The beak also resembles this bird - hence the name of the species. The male is distinguished by purple plumage with a characteristic black mask. Females are gray-brown with sparse purple spots on the thighs and crest.
Their belly and chest are yellowish-orange in color, and the pale mask ends at the back of the head. Unlike red cardinals, the beak of representatives of the parrot species is black and gray. The same color on the paws.
The bird's activity increases in the morning and in the evening. The couple, having chosen a site for settlement, selflessly protects it from the incursions of their brothers and other competitors. Representatives of the parrot species differ from other cardinals in their preference for plant foods.
They also eat insects, but very few. The diet consists mainly of seeds, grains, some fruits, berries and cactus fruits. The cardinal parrot, having matured by 12 months, chooses a mate, which remains faithful throughout its life.
Green cardinal
The habitat of the green cardinal is the temperate latitudes of the South American continent, i.e. southern territories of Argentina. The male is a deeper green color than his mate. The green cardinal's mask consists of two broad yellow stripes under the crest and beak.
Pairs feel great in captivity, reproduce easily and are not afraid of low temperatures. The clutch consists of 3-4 light gray speckled eggs. The newly hatched chick is dark brown in color with brown down. But on the 17th day of life, when the time comes to leave the nest, the color of the feather becomes similar to the mother's pale green.
Indigo Bunting Cardinal
This is another species belonging to the cardinal family. The songbird of North America is only 15 cm long from beak to tail tip. During the mating season, the male acquires a bright blue plumage color. Moreover, their wings and tail are dark with a blue border, and above the beak there is a black stripe resembling a bridle.
With the onset of winter, the color of the males becomes paler, the belly and the inside of the tail acquire a whitish tint. Females have brown feather color with stripes on the breast and yellowish-brown streaks on the wings.
The cardinal bunting's nest is also bowl-shaped, made of thin branches, grass, feathers and animal hair. The color of a clutch of 3-4 eggs is light blue.
The habitat depends on the season: in the summer it is Southeast Canada and the eastern United States, and in the winter it is the West Indies and Central America.
The cardinal bird has long been the hero of numerous American legends. Her images and figurines decorate homes during Christmas and New Year. Along with Santa, snowmen and reindeer, the bright red-feathered bird represents a Christmas symbol in American culture.
A little about the black water cutter
The black skimmer has an unusual bill not only among all shorebirds, but also among birds throughout North America. Its uniqueness is not only that it is very thin and colorful (red and black strokes), but also that its lower part is longer than the upper.
This feature is very important for the process of feeding the cutwater. How does this happen? Birds fly over the water at high speeds, while the lower part of the beak cuts a channel along the surface of the water and descends into the water. When a fish is in it, the top of the beak snaps shut. Such an extreme method of obtaining food, of course, does not come without risks. Black skimmers sometimes have collisions with certain underwater objects.
In addition, these birds also use their beaks to kill seagulls that have the courage to invade their nesting sites.
The black, red-billed skimmers are the only bird species in South and North America with this feeding technique.
Nutrition
The diet of the Virginia cardinal, in addition to pine seeds, consists of the fruits of other plants, the bark and foliage of elm. Numerous insects can also serve as food. Among them: beetles, cicadas, grasshoppers. In nature, birds can feast on snails, elderberries, cherries, junipers, strawberries, and grapes. They will not refuse corn and other grains that are in the stage of milk maturity.
In captivity, cardinals need to be given the opportunity to exercise more because they quickly become overweight. You can diversify the food for them with locusts, Madagascar cockroaches, and crickets. Greens, fruits and berries, buds and flowers of fruit trees will also not be superfluous.
What does the chough eat?
These birds are very trusting. They often pick up food on the tops of mountains, where climbers throw it, and near mountain huts. Choughs usually do not fly away for the winter, but in the mountains their colonies become empty because the birds descend to the foothills and valleys. Choughs found in Spain, usually nesting in the walls of houses (both in ruins and in residential areas), are not as timid as in mountainous areas. And they often obtain food near human habitation.
Compared to other birds, whose food preferences and methods of obtaining food are quite diverse, the chough is mostly a consumer of small insects, primarily ants. This relatively small bird with a red beak also eats worms, seeds and berries.
Choughs usually feed in small flocks. In this important process, they are well assisted by their long, thin beaks, which extract small prey from grass or turf (remnants from rabbits and sheep).
Reproduction and lifespan
During the mating season, the trills of males become especially loud and melodic. The groom puffs up his tail, sticks out his red chest, shows his girlfriend first his left side, then his right, turning and flapping his wings.
Having formed a pair, the female begins to build a cup-shaped dense nest on a low tree or in the upper branches of bushes, and the future father helps her. The clutch consists of 3-4 eggs, which have a greenish or bluish tint interspersed with gray or brown.
While the female incubates the clutch, the male entertains her with songs, and she sometimes quietly sings along. He feeds his chosen one, bringing insects and seeds. He drives away other birds with loud chirping and selflessly protects the nest from attacks by predators. Occasionally, the mother may leave the nest, then the male sits on the clutch.
After 12-14 days, the chicks appear. Their parents feed them exclusively insects. Around the 17th day, the chicks leave their father's nest, after which the female begins the next clutch, and the male feeds the previous offspring.
In their natural environment, red cardinals live from 10 to 15 years. In captivity, with proper maintenance, their life expectancy can increase to 30 years.
Natural enemies of red cardinals
Photo: What a red cardinal looks like
Adult red cardinals can be eaten by domestic cats, domestic dogs, Cooper's hawks, northern shrikes, eastern gray squirrels, and long-eared owls. Chicks and eggs are vulnerable to predation by snakes, birds and small mammals. Predators of chicks and eggs include milk snakes, black snakes, blue jays, red squirrels, and eastern chipmunks. Cow moths are also capable of stealing eggs from a nest, sometimes eating them.
When confronted by a predator near their nest, male and female red cardinals will give an alarm call, which is a short, shrill note, and will fly towards the predator in an attempt to scare it off. But they do not aggressively crowd with predators.
In summary, the known predators of red cardinals are:
- domestic cats (Felis silvestris);
- domestic dogs (Canis lupusiliaris);
- Cooper's hawks (Accipiter cooperii);
- American Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus);
- northern shrike (Lanius excubitor);
- Carolina squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis);
- long-eared owls (Asio otus);
- eastern owls (Otus asio);
- milk snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum elapsoides);
- black snake (Coluber constrictor);
- gray climbing snake (Pantherophis obsoletus);
- blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata);
- fox squirrel (Sciurus niger);
- red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus);
- eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus);
- brown-headed cowtail (Molothrus ater).
Where do they live?
In Africa, woodpeckers are common in Algeria and Tunisia, Morocco and the Canary Islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
In Europe they live almost everywhere, except for Ireland, Scandinavia and the Russian Arctic. In the Balkans and Asia Minor they are found in the mountains. A large population lives in the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and northern Iran in areas near the Caspian Sea.
The habitats of woodpeckers are very diverse: from the northern taiga to forest plantations, gardens and parks. Birds nest up to the upper border of the forest: on average up to 2000 m above sea level. In all regions of their habitat, woodpeckers are sedentary birds, and migrate only in case of food shortage.
Voice
Woodpeckers are noisy birds. Their voices can be heard during the mating season, in disputes over territory, and in case of fright. The most common sound is a sharp and abrupt “kick”. An excited bird makes it quickly, many times in a row, which is heard as “ki-ki-ki” or “kr-kr-kr”. From mid-January to the end of June, the calls of the woodpecker are accompanied by “drum roll” - a trill from the vibration of branches under the rapid blows of the bird’s beak. With its help, woodpeckers also communicate with each other. In good weather, the shot can be heard within a radius of 1.5 km from the bird.
