Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis Cardinalis, is the state bird of Virginia.
A bold red, black mask, and a hefty orange bill, the Northern Cardinal is an iconic and easily identifiable song bird in many areas of North America. In order to attract mates, many bird species’s males have dazzling displays of color and song to draw in females for breeding. The Female Northern Cardinals can be identified by having a pale brown coat with reddish tinges, a black mask, and an orange bill.
They prefer to live in open woodlands, marsh thickets, and other dense shrub areas. The female often does most of the next building while the male brings the materials to her. She crushes twigs until they are pliable so she can weave it into her nesting. Nests are often only used one time before being abandoned.
They mostly eat seeds and berries. Although most of their food is from plants, they’ll also eat plenty of insects like katydids, beetles. They will also only feed their young almost only insects. Safflowers seeds are one of their favorites to eat.
