In my yard, the northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) have been particularly productive this year. In the winter, I regularly saw eight to 12 cardinals on my porch railing at the same time, so I know that there must be several mated pairs in the area. The birds spread out when territories are established, but I think I may have three pairs that will visit my feeders during the breeding season. I say this because there is frequent hostility between males that happen to visit at the same time.
Something interesting has happened this year because I’ve recently seen some surprisingly young cardinals at my deck. Always escorted by an adult male, these three youngsters are still a drab brown and they haven’t developed full pigmentation in their beaks yet. It seems a little late in the year to see such young birds, but I am constantly learning more about what “normal” actually is, so I must not jump to conclusions.
This year, the first cardinal fledglings appeared at my feeders in early June. The world was awash with a fresh coat of green, everything was vibrant and the adults would lead their newly fledged youngsters to my deck, where food just seems to appear for them. This abundance of free food is well understood by the cardinals because even earlier in the spring I often saw adult males and females show up when they are out on a “date.”
The pair would arrive together and would sit in the lilac bushes for a while. Then they moved over to the railing where the male would select a choice morsel for his beloved and then bring it to her and actually feed her. This is a cardinal pair-bonding ritual done in exactly the same way that the adults feed nestlings. The male may simply be reassuring his intended that he’s up to the challenge of providing for offspring. It is a very gentle and tender ceremony and anyone who sees it can’t quite help being somewhat touched by it.
With the first brood of chicks in the capable hands of their father, the female would then have started the process of replacing her nest. The heavy, crushing beak of the cardinal allows the birds to “tenderize” small twigs so that they become pliable and bendy. This allows the female to make a rounded cup-shaped nest that will be quite durable when the twigs eventually dry and harden.
Into the nest will go another clutch of three to four eggs and the female will start incubation. Then, she may do something that is quite unusual among the songbirds. She may actually start to sing and she may even sing while she is sitting on the nest. Singing is usually the purview of male birds, but cardinals do things a little differently. It is entirely possible that the females are keeping their mates up to date on things and letting them know when it’s time to bring food to the nest.
The eggs are incubated for about 12 days and after hatching, the chicks are ready to fly in another 12 days, which is a staggeringly fast period of development. This sort of growth requires a lot of food, so the male is kept busy in his search for insects to feed his chicks. Keeping all of this in mind makes it perfectly understandable that the parents of these hungry babies would bring them to a well-stocked feeding station where they can find all of the food they could possibly desire. I think that human parents would do the same.
Given the rapidity of the nesting process, I am at something of a loss to explain the presence of the very young cardinals that I have seen as recently as last week. Either one pair may have lost a nest and started another to replace it, or another pair may have broken with “tradition” and had a third nest. Either way, it is a lot of fun to watch these young birds learning what it is to be a cardinal and acquainting themselves with the best restaurant in town — my feeders.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 22 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service and the Massachusetts State Parks and currently teaches high school biology and physics. Visit www.speakingofnature.com for more information, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.