Since the pandemic has forced Jon Vopni to stay home more, he's been enjoying the extra time to do some backyard birding.
This week, Vopni is sharing his photos and observations of Cardinals. He's also providing some tips on how to attract birds to your backyard
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The Cardinal with its bright red feathers and distinctive song is one of those birds that everyone knows, and many people have chosen as one of their favourites.
This year, in the early spring, I was lucky to catch the male landing upon the table on my back deck. I had just replaced an old orange from its perch atop my feeder for the orioles with a fresh new one, I set it on the table but before I could throw the rather sad-looking fruit in the compost bin, out of nowhere the Cardinal lands on the table and checks out the orange, then starts to peck at it.
There was a fresh orange about six feet away, but this bird seemed content with the fruit passed its prime.
On another occasion I witnessed the male landing on my sunflower seed feeder, taking a seed out and flying up to a branch just above the feeder where the female was perched and he fed it to her, he repeated this gesture a few more time before they both flew off together, I thought to myself, "what a true gentleman in an all-red tuxedo."
Unfortunately, every time a saw the female I didn’t have my camera at hand so I'm sad to say I have no pictures of her to share with you.
The Cardinals also enjoyed the grape jelly that I put out for the Orioles too. It’s best to hang your oranges and grape jelly pot from a tree branch as the ants love them as well.
Cheers, and happy birding!
You can listen to the Cardinal's song in this video:
