One Bird, Two Bird, Redbird, Bluebird*

I think this cardinal is eating snow.

My mother-in-law always referred to cardinals as "redbirds". She was from Alabama, and apparently most southerners refer to cardinals as redbirds. I had never heard of that before. I thought that maybe my mother-in-law just didn't know the specific name of the cardinals so she gave them a nickname of "redbirds". And then I found out that other friends and family members from the south also refer to them as "redbirds". After all, we have "bluebirds", too. Such a simple name for these beautiful birds.

Female Northern Cardinal

The male Northern Cardinal is a bright red color while the female cardinal is mostly brown with areas of red on her tail, wings, and crest. They have crested feathers on top of their head. The cardinals do not migrate and they also do not molt into a dull color. They have a reddish-orange, large beak which is designed for seed-cracking.

The juvenile cardinal (both male and female) look like the adult female except they have a black beak. A few years ago, we were fortunate to observe cardinals bringing their immature cardinals to our bird feeders and feeding them.

This is a trumpet vine next to one of our bird feeders. 

Northern Cardinals can be found in backyards, parks, woodlots, and forest edges. They build their nest in dense tangles of shrubs.


The Northern Cardinals are also a songbird and sing a variety of different melodies.

If you want to attract cardinals to your feeders you might want to purchase some black oil sunflower seeds. We usually purchase a mix of various seeds that appeal to several birds. Cardinals also eat fruit and insects.




This was an unusual winter for us because we have seen so many cardinals at one time at our feeders. We usually only see maybe one or two pairs of cardinals, but this year we have had at least four pairs at one time at our feeders. I think the reason we only see so few at one time is because the males are so protective of their mate and territory (the cardinals mate for life).

There is a suet/seed feeder higher up on the tree and these cardinals are looking for seeds that have fallen.

This bird, in defending its territory in the spring, will chase away other males, and will also attack car mirrors, and reflections in windows thinking that it's another male. We had one that did this for several weeks in the spring.

Not a great photo, but in this photo there are four male cardinals which is very unusual for us to see them altogether
(and a woodpecker on the suet and a sparrow on the feeder).

The size of a cardinal compared to a sparrow.

The Northern Cardinal is the state bird of seven states.

This was taken right after we had a heavy snowfall.

And for the bluebird part of this post? 

Bluejay

Earlier this week my husband, Ted, was snowshoeing out back and came across some bluebirds sitting in a tree at the edge of a hedge row. While he attempted to get a little closer to get a better photograph of them they took off.

Bluebirds

We had a bluebird in our yard last winter in December, but they don't visit our feeders. I'm not sure why.

While I am still at a beginning level of photography, one of my gardening/blogger friends recently posted some information on bird photography. Here is a link to Donna's blog post at Garden Walk Garden Talk: Stuff Beginning Photographers Need to Know When Shooting Birds. Her post is excellent and her photography is amazing.


*Note: I got the name for the title of this post playing on the words of Dr. Suess' book: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!

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