Speaking of Wildlife by Jamie Proctor

All about Northern Cardinals

Welcome to the twenty-fourth column introducing the residents of Speaking of Wildlife: Ontario animals that can’t be released back into the wilderness due to permanent injuries or over-habituation to humans. Today we’ll be looking at one of our most insolent and charming residents, recognizable from your own backyard: the northern cardinal Cranberry.

Despite their name, northern cardinals are neither eligible for popedom (unfair! uncalled for!) nor remotely arctic wildlife – the north end of their range tops out around a ways into southern Ontario, while their southward edge is all the way down in Guatemala.

Still, by their two closest relatives’ standards they’re downright polar: the sandier-coloured pyrrhuloxia/’desert cardinal’ can be found in Mexico and the American southwest, and the impressively-tall-crested Vermillion cardinal is local to the northern fringes of Columbia and Venezuela. This trio’s closest relatives outside their genus are the buntings and grosbeaks – the latter of which do not have gross beaks, just large ones (en francais), which they share with their cardinal cousins.

The northern cardinal is a wonderful example of how to be unmistakeable: even if you set aside the bright red plumage of the males, their simple and striking head crests paired with their thick orange beaks and dark little face masks all create a highly distinctive profile that’d make any character artist green red with envy.

Even people who have grave difficulty telling one songbird apart from another – and are DEFINITELY not me – know a cardinal when we (I mean they) see one. They’re the kind of omnivorous that plays favourites, specifically with a greedy appetite for seeds of all kinds.

Combined with their affinity for semi-open terrain with good dense bushes for hiding and nesting (a team sport by the parents: mom sometimes lays the next clutch while dad sticks around to feed fledglings of the last batch), this makes them reliable standbys at any given birdfeeder within the species’ range, particularly if you’ve got sunflower seeds on tap.

Beyond accepting food from us, they’re also benefiting from human clearance of old-growth forest into mixed wood and shrubland, and from the increasing mildness of North American winters, and are generally handling the Anthropocene pretty well, insofar as any animal can be said to be doing that.

More typical threats to cardinal life and limb are a wide spectrum of birds of prey for adults, and corvids and adorable arboreal rodents for young and eggs – and that’s not enough, because by all indications their population and range are slightly but slowly growing.

Cranberry, who is at the time of writing SOW’s newest resident, may be a particularly mixed example of human impact: she was found in bad shape with an eyeball so injured it had to be removed from her skull entirely, recovered with aplomb, and post-release quickly returned to her original savior to ask for food.

Further examination seemed to indicate she had little to no fear or apprehension of humans and may have been an amateur hand-reared release who adapted poorly to life in the wild. Being thus both demonstrably Bad At Survival and now lacking 50% of her predator detection suite, Cranberry was sent to SOW.

Here she was slowly introduced to Louis, our elderly male northern cardinal, and both of them were extremely adorable about it, singing together and hanging out – we even had to start bribing her with worms whenever Louis received his medicine because otherwise he’d try to share his medicated waxworms with her beak-to-beak.

Old age and its many ailments recently took Louis away, but Cranberry had time to say goodbye to him, seems to be coping well, and remains voracious for worms, berries, and sunflower seeds, especially with cold weather coming in.

Cranberry has only been at SOW for a short time, but I can safely say that I like her very much and she seems to return the sentiment: I enjoy giving her waxworms by hand and she enjoys eating them and making beautiful noises.

The only tricky bit is finding her – unlike a male cardinal, she can blend right into the backdrop of her enclosure simply by standing on a branch, making the surest signs of her presence her orange beak and her (single) black beady eye. She is loud, round, and bold: the archetypical songbird. This suite of traits is probably the quickest explanation of why Passerines are over half of all known bird species.

I am also indirectly responsible for Cranberry’s name, which was one of several suggestions voted on by the public.  I thought of it because cranberries are red and female cardinals very specifically aren’t. This makes the correct amount of no sense.

Come experience a Wild Christmas at Speaking of Wildlife on December 14! This holiday season, step into a wonderland of wildlife and festive cheer! Join us for our Wild Christmas Event and make memories to last a lifetime:

Enjoy a Guided Wildlife Tour, meet some amazing animals and learn about the animals we share our environment with. Enjoy a Visit with Santa – Share your wishes and get a photo. Featuring a Craft Corner – Colouring Pages & Holiday Crafts, Wildlife Displays & Videos – Learn about Local Wildlife, Gift Shop – Find the perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Warm up with Complimentary Hot Chocolate & a Cozy Fire.
Tour Times: 10am, 10:30am, 11am, 11:30am, 12pm, 12:30pm
Cost: $15/ person, Kids under 3 are FREE
Santa Photos (4×6): +$5/ photo

Spaces are limited, REGISTRATION REQUIRED! Register here today!