By Dr. Robert Norman
The Northern Cardinal is one of Florida’s small red birds with a prominent crest. The males have bright red plumage almost throughout the body. Exceptions are the black face mask and throat. Females are olive-brown, with a red tint on the crest, wings, and tail.
Cardinals are monogamous birds that pair up for a year or longer, although some couples mate for life. During courtship, males prove their strength by finding seeds for the female and feeding them to her one at a time, from his beak to hers. This courtship display looks a lot like kissing.
Cardinals typically lay 3 eggs but they can lay anywhere from one to five. The female does all of the incubation and she doesn’t start to sit until she has finished laying. The eggs will hatch in 11 to 13 days after she starts sitting. Once hatched, both the male and female will feed the young.
Baby cardinals are ready to leave the nest in 7-13 days after the incubation period. So the fledglings stay with their parent cardinals for about 20 days until they learn to fly and go out and explore the world on their own.
As a young female cardinal matures, its feathers will develop into that of an adult female cardinal, which are dull brown and olive with red tinges. They won’t be truly independent until they’re 25 to 56 days old. The male cardinal might continue to feed the fledglings, while the female starts building the next nest.
Fun Facts
Only a few female North American songbirds sing, but the female Northern Cardinal does, and often while sitting on the nest. This may give the male information about when to bring food to the nest. A mated pair shares song phrases, but the female may sing a longer and slightly more complex song than the male.
Many people are perplexed each spring by the sight of a cardinal attacking its reflection in a window, car mirror, or shiny bumper. Both males and females do this, and most often in spring and early summer when they are obsessed with defending their territory against any intruders. The male cardinal fiercely defends its breeding territory from other males. When a male sees its reflection in glass surfaces, it frequently will spend hours fighting the imaginary intruder.
A few weeks later, as levels of aggressive hormones subside, these attacks should end (though one female was reported to have kept up this behavior every day or so for six months without stopping).
A perennial favorite among people, the Northern Cardinal is the state bird of seven states.
The average life span of a northern cardinal is approximately 3 to 5 years due to the hazards they face, which are predators, disease, accidents, and starvation. The oldest recorded Northern Cardinal was a female, and was 15 years, 9 months old when she was found in Pennsylvania.
Where can you see these amazing creatures?
Get out into The Great Florida Outdoors!
Dr. Robert Norman
Clinical Professor of Dermatology
Director–Center for Geriatric Dermatology, Integrative Dermatology and Neuro-Dermatology
813-880-7546
10820 Sheldon Rd.
Tampa, Florida 33626
Dr. Norman is an advanced master naturalist graduate of the FMNP program from UF and a board-certified dermatologist based in Tampa and Riverview. He can be reached at 813-880-7546.
70 books (series editor of 39) ● 300+ articles ● 150 Lectures and Blogs
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Tampa Bay Medical Hero Award (2008)
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