Attracting Cardinals To Your Backyard
(other backyard tips here)
| That red bird with the big beak really has it made. During the holidays, just about everyone receives
its picture -- it might be the number one Christmas pinup! The Northern Cardinal, as this bird is officially
called, is popular for good reason. No other bird looks so good against freshly fallen snow.
Both the male and the female sing a pleasant, simple song that's often countersung (the male
answers the female on a slightly different pitch). Cardinals seem to prosper even with the habitat
alterations accompanying our home-building efforts. Few other songbirds reward us so richly or
rapidly if we scatter a few handfuls of their favorite seed on the ground or on a low feeding table.
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Cardinals have greatly increased their breeding
range over the past 80 years. Cardinals do not migrate, but
simply keep pushing farther North and West as suburbs and bird
feeders proliferate. They range throughout most of the Eastern
and Central states, the entire South, and much of the arid
Southwest. Cardinals are one "red light" you'll want
to attract!!
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Feeding Cardinals
The preferred seeds of the Cardinal are:
Black Oil Sunflower, and Safflower, or a mixture of both.
The Cardinal's large bill also allows them to crack open the
larger striped sunflower seeds.
Try our
Sun Country Farms Black Oil Sunflower seeds
| Nesting/Housing
Cardinals will not use nest boxes. They prefer
a dense, shrubby habitat -- If you
provide that in your backyard, you keep the Cardinals happy!
They nest in shrubs and viney tangles at least twice every summer.
If the shrubs (such as junipers, dogwoods, honeysuckle and viburnums)
provide fruit -- all the better!
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Protect Cardinals with
Cardinal Alert
The Cardinal's territorial behavior can
prove annoying, as a male will constantly batter himself
against a window to "scare away" his potential male
competitor (which is merely his reflection!). Use
Cardinal Alert
(pictured below) to help prevent this from happening.
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WaterLike most
other birds, having a year-round water source is a great
help in attracting Cardinals. A few favorites Cardinals
love include: |
Feeders and Feeder Placement
The Cardinal is really not a hard bird to
please. Provide his favorite seeds and the Cardinal
will often be your first bird to feed in the morning, and
the last at night. In the Spring, you'll enjoy seeing
the male Cardinal offer the female a carefully selected seed
as part of their "mate feeding ritual."
Cardinals are "ground" feeders; however,
they will feed on flat surfaces. Thus, wood platform
feeders (hopper, fly through and open platform) placed five
feet or so above ground level are ideal to attract them.
Note that the perches on most tube feeders are too small to
allow Northern Cardinals to comfortably feed. To
attract Cardinals, you must attach a tray, and we have a
tray for nearly every tube feeder made!
Take a look at some of our favorite
Cardinal feeders.
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Want to learn more?
See "Bird Man Mel" talk about
Cardinals. |
©Thanks to Gold Crest Distributing and Bird
Man Mel for permission to use this information
