Cardinals mate for life and may have three or four broods per mating season

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

NORTHERN CARDINAL

(Cardinalis cardinalis)

The Northern Cardinal is a bird we have in our backyard 12 months of the year ... usually one pair.   The one pair is always very territorial when it come to other cardinal interlopers.  But this year we have two pairs of adults cardinals and they have been prolific.   Both pairs appear to have raised two broods this year and one of the pairs seems to be feeding a third brood (photo below).   I have only just learned that male cardinals will take over the feeding of young fledglings while a female cardinal sits on a nest where she may have as many as four broods in a mating season.  Cardinals mate for life and I'm thinking that our backyard, in the village of King City, Ontario, may now have a lot more of these beautiful red birds around than ever before.   What a delightful possibility.   Cardinals are found in south-eastern Canada, the eastern USA and down into Mexico, Guatemala and Belize.   They are not native to Hawaii but were introduced there many decades ago, as were many other especially attractive birds.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder