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Birdaday Field Notes

Species profile

Northern Cardinal: identification, voice, food and nesting

The Northern Cardinal is a crested, thick-billed songbird that stays put all year. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says cardinals don't migrate and don't molt into a dull plumage, so red males stay bright through winter. Nearly any feeder attracts them within their range, yet away from feeders they hide in dense tangles. Every figure below comes from the sources at the bottom. Seven more feeder regulars are profiled on common backyard birds.

Quick facts

Fact Northern Cardinal
Scientific name Cardinalis cardinalis, described by Linnaeus in 1758 (Wikipedia)
Length 8.3–9.1 in, slightly smaller than an American Robin (Cornell)
Weight 1.5–1.7 oz (Cornell; Audubon gives the same)
Wingspan 9.8–12.2 in (Cornell); 9–12 in (Audubon)
Movements Permanent resident; does not migrate (Cornell, Audubon)
Range Abundant in the Southeast; has spread north for decades into southeastern Canada; mostly absent west of the Great Plains but locally common in the desert Southwest (Audubon). Introduced to Bermuda and Hawaii (Wikipedia)
Population About 130 million breeding birds (Partners in Flight, via Cornell)
Trend Up an estimated 0.32% per year since 1966 (Breeding Bird Survey, via Cornell); Low Concern (Cornell); Least Concern (IUCN, via Audubon)
Oldest known A female found in Pennsylvania at 15 years 9 months (Cornell)
State bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia (Cornell)

How to identify a Northern Cardinal

Cornell describes a fairly large, long-tailed songbird with a short, very thick bill and a prominent crest, often sitting hunched with its tail pointed down.

Adult male Northern Cardinal on a weathered wooden fence: bright red body, crest, black face around a thick red-orange bill Female Northern Cardinal on a wooden fence: pale brown body with red tinges on crest, wings and tail, red-orange bill
Male (left) and female (right). Both show the crest, the thick bill and the black face around it. The male is red overall; the female is pale brown with red in the wings, tail and crest (Cornell).
Photo: Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash
Northern Cardinal field marksA simplified side view of a generic cardinal perched on a branch, facing left, with six numbered field marks: crest, thick bill, black face, red body, wings, and long tail held down. To the right, three color swatches compare an adult male, an adult female and a juvenile, each with its bill color. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
  1. Crest: both sexes; raised when agitated, low at rest.
  2. Bill: short and very thick; reddish in males, red-orange in females.
  3. Black face around the bill, both sexes.
  4. Body: bright red overall on adult males.
  5. Wings: on females, wings, tail and crest carry the warm red tinges.
  6. Long tail, often pointed straight down. Length 8.3–9.1 in.
  7. Adult male swatch: red body, reddish bill.
  8. Adult female swatch: pale brown with red tinges (strip), red-orange bill.
  9. Juvenile swatch: like a female with a gray to black bill; adult color arrives in fall (Wikipedia).
Drawn for Birdaday Field Notes as a generic cardinal shape. Field marks follow the Cornell Lab's All About Birds ID page (Wikipedia where noted) and the Audubon field guide, cited below. Colors approximate. Not to scale.

Look-alikes

Cornell also lists the breeding male Scarlet Tanager and the female Phainopepla as similar species. Two to know:

Species Where How it differs
Pyrrhuloxia Desert Southwest and northern Mexico Gray overall with red face, crest, breast stripe and tail; a stubby, parrot-like yellow bill (Cornell). Audubon notes the two can be confused in the Southwest
Summer Tanager (adult male) Breeds in open forests; in the Southwest along streams All red, with a large, thick, blunt-tipped bill; Cornell notes only a slight crest on females, not always visible. It usually stays high in the forest canopy, catching bees and wasps on the wing

Voice

Both sexes sing. Cornell describes the song as a loud string of clear, down-slurred or two-parted whistles, usually 2–3 seconds long, often speeding up and ending in a slow trill. Common memory aids are cheer, cheer, cheer and birdie, birdie, birdie. Males may sing all year, with a peak in spring and early summer.

Food and feeders

In the wild, cardinals eat mostly seeds and fruit plus insects, which they also feed to nestlings. Cornell lists dogwood, wild grape, grasses, sedges, mulberry, blackberry and sumac, and beetles, crickets, cicadas, spiders and moths. They forage mostly by hopping on the ground or through low bushes (Audubon).

Feeder food What the sources say
Black-oil sunflower "Among the favorite feeder foods of cardinals" (FeederWatch); Cornell says cardinals especially use sunflower
Safflower "A favorite among cardinals" (Cornell); attracts cardinals and other big-billed birds, though most birds prefer sunflower (FeederWatch)
White proso millet Eaten by ground feeders including cardinals; also draws cowbirds and House Sparrows (Cornell)
Cracked corn Cardinals eat it; Cornell warns about aflatoxin contamination and unwanted visitors

Feeder type: Cornell says cardinals favor tray and hopper feeders. Nearly any feeder works within their range. See bird feeder types and the full seed-by-species table.

Nesting

The female builds most of the nest, sometimes with material the male brings. She builds an open cup in four layers: coarse twigs, a leafy mat, grapevine bark, and a fine lining of grasses, rootlets and pine needles. The nest is wedged into a fork of small branches in a sapling, shrub or vine tangle (Cornell). Cardinals usually don't reuse a nest (NestWatch).

Sources differ on several figures, so both are shown:

Stage Cornell Lab / NestWatch Audubon field guide
Nest height 1–15 ft Usually 3–10 ft
Building time 3–9 days —
Nest size 2–3 in tall, about 4 in across —
Clutch 2–5 eggs Usually 3–4, sometimes 2–5
Incubation 11–13 days 12–13 days, by the female alone
Nestling period 7–13 days Young leave about 9–11 days after hatching
Broods per year 1–2 2–3, rarely 4

NestWatch leaders wrote in 2013 that cardinals can start building as early as late February and keep nesting into late August or September, and that typically fewer than 40 percent of nests fledge at least one young.

To invite nesting: Cornell suggests leaving undergrowth around your yard or its edges.

A cardinal's year

Northern Cardinal year chartA January to December chart with six rows: present at feeders all year; nesting from late February into late August or September; song peak and window attacks in spring and early summer; bald-headed birds in late summer and fall; winter flocks in fall and winter. JFMAMJJASOND 1 2 3 4 5 6
  1. Present all year: a permanent resident that does not migrate (Cornell, Audubon).
  2. Nesting: building can start as early as late February and nesting can continue into late August or September (NestWatch); the dashed part is the "or September" tail.
  3. Song peak: spring and early summer, though males may sing in any month (Cornell).
  4. Window and mirror attacks: spring and early summer, while defending territories; they usually stop after a few weeks (Cornell).
  5. Bald-headed birds: most cases in late summer and fall, during molt (FeederWatch).
  6. Winter flocks: fall and winter, from about a dozen to several dozen birds (Cornell).
Drawn for Birdaday Field Notes from the seasons stated by the Cornell Lab (All About Birds), NestWatch, Project FeederWatch and Audubon, cited below. The sources name seasons, not exact dates, so month edges are approximate and timing varies by latitude.

Behaviors that puzzle backyard birders

Fighting the window. In spring and early summer, cardinals often attack their reflections in windows, mirrors and shiny bumpers while defending territory. Cornell says the attacks usually stop after a few weeks as hormone levels drop, though one female kept it up for six months. Audubon's 2026 advice is to remove the reflection:

  1. Hang a sheet, blanket or cardboard over the outside of the window (inside won't work) for a few days.
  2. Or fit an exterior screen, soap the glass, or apply anti-collision decals.
  3. On cars, fold in side mirrors or cover them with paper bags, not plastic.

Bald cardinals. A cardinal with a bare black head in late summer or fall is usually molting all its head feathers at once. Cornell says the bald look lasts about a week. FeederWatch says new head feathers grow in within a few weeks. Cornell calls mites, lice, or environmental or nutritional factors rare causes. Cardinals have black skin, so a different skin color on a bald head suggests something else is wrong (FeederWatch).

For your Bird-a-Day streak

Cardinals stay all year, so save them. Audubon's challenge advice is to log the most unusual species you see and keep reliable feeder birds for hard days. See the Bird-a-Day challenge guide and the species planner.

Cardinal-friendly yard checklist

Sources