I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that we are going to have a white Christmas. As I write this column I am looking at the forecast for the storm that most likely dumped a fresh blanket of snow on parts of our region. Those of you at higher elevations might have received enough to carry through to next weekend when presents will be opened and I know my mother is among those who is definitely hoping to be snowed in. If I could somehow arrange for two feet of snow to fall on Christmas weekend I think she might be rendered speechless with happiness.
I’ve already enjoyed the pleasure of staying home from school once this year and I made the most of it by sticking close to the kitchen window and watching the birds come for breakfast at my feeders. I managed to collect another 300 photos that morning and I added a new species to my December list – the American tree sparrow. Very late in its arrival this year, the tree sparrow brought me one species closer to setting a new record for species seen in December, but interesting as it was it wasn’t the star of the show that morning. Instead, it was a bird that never ceases to impress – the northern cardinal.
The camera loves a cardinal. There is something about this bird that dazzles the eye and although this is true at any point in the year, winter seems to be the season when the cardinal shines the brightest.
The male is a real stunner with his red plumage, but the female is just as gorgeous in her outfit of caramel brown. The epitome of cardinal splendor is achieved when a cold bird fluffs up its feathers as it perches in a tree. The appearance of plumpness combined with the crest of feathers on top of the head is simply magical. Your eyes drink up the beauty and can’t seem to drink enough. I am coining a new term for those of us who can’t look away from these exquisite creatures. We are cardinalaholics!
So it was not even a question that I would focus my attention on the cardinals at my feeders and as the morning matured I was dazzled more and more as the number of birds steadily increased. In the gloomiest light of the early morning, when the sunlight finally managed to penetrate the storm clouds and I could begin to make out the shapes of early arrivals on my deck, I noticed a single female feeding along with some white-throated sparrows. As the light slowly increased I added another female and a male. Then there were five cardinals and then six. The number continued to grow until there was one amazing moment when I found myself looking at five male cardinals that were all sitting in the same lilac bush at the same time.
Earlier this year I wrote a story about Big and Little Bruce. These were two cardinals, father and son, and both of them were in a ridiculous state of dishevelment. Well, there are no recognizable traces of these ragamuffins any longer. I have no doubt that Big and Little Bruce are among the birds that visit my feeders, but their plumage has been replaced with feathers that render them unrecognizable in their resplendent winter finest. I will have to log many more hours if there is to be hope of identifying individuals with any sort of success.
As much as we humans love cardinals, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that cardinals may love humans just as much. It just so happens that we have been shaping the landscape into a perfect cardinal habitat without even knowing it. We have carved up the landscape for all sorts of uses and this has created a lot of “edge” habitats, which cardinals prefer. But even more important is the fact that we have also provided an enormous amount of food that has allowed many species (the cardinal among them) to expand their ranges.
In Connecticut, the first report of nesting cardinals came in 1943. For Massachusetts the first nests were reported in 1958. I was born in 1968, so I have always known the cardinal as a “normal” bird.
Little did I realize that they had arrived only shortly before I did. The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology has been conducting a long-term study of bird populations called “Project Feeder Watch” since 1987 and the range expansion has been monitored by thousands of citizen scientists every year. I suppose it should come as no surprise that more feeders means more cardinals.
So as you prepare for Christmas why not consider buying yourself a new birdfeeder. Hang it in a place that is easy to observe and fill it with sunflower seeds. Mixed seed, which contains a relatively small amount of sunflower seed, can be sprinkled on the ground, but isn’t really a great choice for putting in hanging feeders. Cardinals love sunflower seeds and if you provide what they are looking for then you might be able to keep them coming to your yard for the entire winter.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a feeder full of cardinals!
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 25 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more in formation visit his website at www.speakingofnature.com, or head over to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.