Macaulay Library Photos for Northern Cardinal
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Large, long-tailed songbird with a short, very thick bill and a prominent crest. Males are brilliant red with a black mask and throat.
Large, crested songbird with a short, thick bill. Females are are pale brown overall with warm reddish tinges in the wings, tail, and crest.
Juveniles are similar to females, but have a gray to black bill.
Some birds lose all the feathers from their head at the same time, remaining bald until the feathers grow back.
A plump, brilliant red songbird with a crest that is common in yards and suburban areas.
Often sits with a hunched-over posture and with the tail pointed straight down.
Year-round resident that adds color to winter landscapes in the East.
Found in backyards, parks, woodlots, and shrubby forest edges.
Hatchlings partially covered with gray down, 6–11 mm long, on coronal, occipital, middorsal, pelvic, scapular, femoral, and greater secondary-covert and median secondary-covert regions at hatching
Plumage is similar to Definitive Basic female but duller, crest and flight-feathers more brownish. Juvenile body feathers (especially undertail coverts) filamentous due to lower barb density.
Less red plumage apparent on the body. Juvenile outer primaries and rectrices narrower and more tapered at tips than in later plumages
Note molt limits among feathers of the upperwing and tail, and retained worn, narrow, or brownish-tinged flight feathers contrasting with newly molted uniformly red to reddish flight feathers.
Upperparts plain grayish olive or buffy grayish; head with conspicuous crest, variably red to tipped red. Upperwing greater coverts and secondaries duller red than primaries and rectrices.
Underparts pale fulvous or buffy, but some individuals can show nearly white coloration on abdomen. Plumage often with small numbers of red or red-tinged feathers above eye, and among auriculars and feathers of the upper breast and flanks.
Also shown is the random distribution of red, carotenoid-colored feathers that occur on the face and breast as well as in the crest. Adult female captured in Bloomington, Indiana.
Underwing secondary coverts light orange to light red.
Plumage primarily vermilion red, with black face mask that surrounds bill, extends back to eye, and covers chin and throat. Head with conspicuous crest.
Upperwing greater coverts and secondaries duller red than primaries and rectrices.
Male captured in Dayton, Ohio.
Contour feathers of back and neck have olive-gray margins that wear away by early spring; tertials and rectrices may also have olive-grayish margins, and flanks include grayish feathers. Rump and uppertail coverts not distinctly lighter in color than back.
Note lack of gray tips on back feathers in early summer.
Red brightest on auricular region, cheeks, and breast. Underwing secondary coverts light orange to light red.
Apparent female with mix of male and female plumage, captured when flushed from June nest where it appeared to be incubating eggs. This bird had an incubation patch, and the nest produced three fledglings, fed by both this individual and its social mate, a male with definitive male coloration.
Note, red on one side and gray olive on the other side.
Lacks all of the warm buff tones of phaeomelanin, but retains dark gray eumelanin in the wing, tail, and face.
Lacking eumelanin. Note lack of the blackish face mask and the greatly reduced pigment in wings and tail.
Both melanins are produced and deposited in the feathers, but at low concentrations.
Largest subspecies; bill "relatively stouter," with black of lores in male not meeting across forehead.
Smaller than superbus, and bill relatively shorter and thicker.
Male more pure and intense red than in other subspecies.
Female darker than in other subspecies.
Both sexes smaller and darker than cardinalis; bill similar.
Larger and heavier bill, and larger face mask, than those of cardinalis, floridanus, or canicaudus. Otherwise most like floridanus, but wing slightly longer, tail shorter, and foot and tarsus larger; red of male head and underparts lighter than on floridanus, but more intense than on cardinalis.
Middle of female belly more whitish than on cardinalis.
Wings shorter and bill slightly larger than in cardinalis, males more intense red, black band across forehead narrower.
Females grayer above and paler beneath than cardinalis females, with less distinct face mask.
Bill larger and male plumage more intensely colored than cardinalis and contour feathers almost lacking grayish or brownish margins (other subspecies have grayish or brownish margins in newly molted feathers
Similar in size and plumage to coccineus, but male plumage more purplish.
Similar to but smaller than coccineus; adult male slightly lighter red.
Similar in size to yucatanicus; male underparts and edges of wing coverts and primaries more intense red than on yucatanicus, and dorsal plumage has purplish tinge, darker than back color of littoralis.
Female underparts heavily washed with red from throat at least to breast, whereas in yucatanicus, red is absent or confined to a small area just below the black throat.
Smaller than cardinalis. Feet larger than those of yucatanicus; males may be indistinguishable from flammiger males.
Adult female breast much less red than that of yucatanicus or flammiger.
Upper mandible shallower than that of any other subspecies, with less sinuated tomia; crest feathers longer and stiffer than those of other subspecies, and distinctly outlined, giving crest edges a jagged appearance.
Female with black face mask.
Male feeds female during courtship and incubation.
When ready to mate, female gives Precopulatory Display: points beak and tail upward, lowers and quivers wings, fluffs breast feathers, and separates ventral feathers to expose cloacal opening.
Female alone builds nest.
Nests concealed in forks of twigs and small branches; nest height above ground 0.25–12 m.
Note, plastic incorporated into outer layer of nest.
Nest is not attached to substrate; it is wedged into position. Bowl-shaped structure is composed of 4 layers: rough outer material, leafy mat, grapevine bark, and grassy lining.
Ground color ranges from grayish white to buffy white to greenish white. Speckled or spotted with pale gray to medium brown marks. Speckling varies from sparse to thick, obscuring ground or forming blotches. Last egg in each clutch is always more lightly marked with spots and streaks than the others.
In most cases, spots tend to concentrate at larger end of egg.
Incubation apparently by female alone; males have been observed to sit on nests for short periods. Young are brooded exclusively by female throughout nestling period.