Let us hope the Cardinal keeps expanding its range!

By Al Lowe
Contributor

We have some brilliant birds here in Northwestern Ontario, but here is one which we don't really have very much - anyway not yet.
The Cardinal is a bird which is almost all red - at least the male is. He is vermilion red all over, except for a bit of black around his beak. He has a tuft of feathers on the top of his head, which he can raise and lower al will. The female is mainly brownish or greenish, with washes of red on the wings, tail and breast. She also has a crest, and both have red beaks.
This bird is on the move. Years ago, when I was a boy in Northumberland Country, there were no cardinals at all. I didn't know that there were any anywhere in Ontario. Now they are quite common through all of southern Ontario up past Manitoulin and the Ottawa Valley.
They have spread northward from lower Minnesota to the border, and westward to North Dakota and further. They have been seen quite regularly in Winnipeg. Here in Northwestern Ontario, they have been spotted for sure in Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Atikokan, Fort Frances and Rainy River-Baudette area.
Cardinals are obviously quite easy to identify - no other bird anywhere near here looks like it. They are also well known by their songs.
No vocal shrinking, this bird speaks in loud, clear, flute-like tones. Sometimes some of the pleasing notes are repeated "Cheer - cheer - cheer". It has a great many different kinds of whistles and chirps. And here is something a bit different about the song of the Cardinal, the female also sings a lot. And the young start to sing shortly after they have left their parents, and are in their own. Another unusual things about this singing is that it goes on for most of the year.
Cardinals do not nest in big trees. Usually, nests are in fairly dense thickets, in shrubs at the edge of a wood or a pasture. They are quite at home around people, and often nest in the shrubbery around home. Two or three broods a year is quite a common practice.
As with most sparrow-type birds, cardinals live mainly on seeds. Insects are used for part of the diet, and those are generally what we would call pests. But the majority of the diet is made up of seeds - weed and grass seeds, wheat, oats, corn etc. They are very easily attracted to bird feeders in the winter. If they are anywhere near your feed supply, they will quickly find it, and stay close all winter.
This bird was once called the Kentucky Cardinal, and was considered to be a southern bird. Now the official name is the Northern Cardinal. In scientific terms, he is Cardinalis cardinalis.
In the cold of winter, it is a very cheering sight to see this brilliant splash of red out there in the white snow and the brown trees. And even in midwinter, he may have a song or two.
Let us hope that the Cardinal will continue to expand its range into Northern Ontario. After all, we can use a bit of bright colour in our long, weary winter.