This bird was named by the early American settlers after the Roman Catholic cardinals, who wore bright red robes and hats. The Northern Cardinal can be an aggressive and territorial bird; it even has been known to attack its own reflection. Both the male and female are enthusiastic singers, often singing year-round.

Species Description:
Length: 19.7 - 22.2 cm
Physical characteristics: A crested bird, with a long tail, black face and large red bill. The males are a bright red with slightly duller red back and wings. The female has red wings, tail and crest, but the upperparts are a warm brown and the underparts are buff.
Voice: Song is variable, clear, and whistled; often a cheer, cheer, cheer or purty purty purty.

Breeding habitat:
The Northern Cardinal breeds in thickets and brushy areas, edges, clearings, parks and residential areas.

Mating system:
Monogamous; a pair produces 2 - 3 broods per season, but occasionally can produce four.

Nest:
The female builds a cup-shaped nest of small twigs and grasses in a shrub or thicket. The nest can be placed anywhere up to six meters (20 feet) from the ground, but 1 - 1.5 meters (about 4 - 5 feet ) is most common.

Eggs:
3 - 4 eggs are laid per clutch. They are pale bluish- to greenish-white and marked with various browns and grays. 25mm (1.0'').

Chick development:
The chicks are born altricial after 12 ? 13 days of incubation by the female. Both the male and female care for the chicks until the female starts another brood, when the male takes over exclusive care of the first brood. The chicks fledge at 9 - 10 days of age.

Diet:
The diet is mostly seeds and grains, with some fruit, supplemented with insects in the summer. The young are fed almost exclusively insects. Northern Cardinals feed mostly from the ground and are a frequent visitor to bird feeders.

Parasites:
An unidentified feather mite was collected from a Northern Cardinal in the park in 2007.

An unidentified louse of the genus Philopterus (Philopteridae) was collected from a cardinal caught at Tremont, Tennessee (Reeves et al. 2007).

Parasites of the genus Leucocytozoon, a parasitic protozoan that circulates in the host?s blood and infects internal organs, were visually confirmed in four of nine blood sample from cardinals caught at Tremont, Abrams Creek Ranger Station (TN), Cades Cove (TN), and Oconaluftee (NC) in 2000 and 2001 (det. P. E. Super). Avian pox-like symptoms have been observed in cardinals caught at Tremont.

Conservation Biology:
This species is quite common, and is not listed as being of any special conservation concern. In fact, its range is extending in the North.
The Northern Cardinal can be a common cowbird host.

Breeding: The Northern Cardinal is found in extreme southeastern Canada and most of the eastern United States as far west as South Dakota to Texas. It also occurs in southern New Mexico, Arizona, and south to Mexico.
Winter: This bird is non-migratory, but there can be movement north or northeast in the late summer or fall by some birds, particularly those in the East. Large flocks of 60 ? 70 birds can gather in the winter.

The Northern Cardinal is a common year-round resident bird species in the Park. It is most commonly observed at low elevations and in open habitat. Good places to see this bird in the park are at Cades Cove, near one of the visitor centers, around campgrounds. A survey of breeding birds in the park, performed from 1996-1999, ranked Northern Cardinal as the 40th most common species out of 113 species observed during the breeding season. Estimates from this survey indicate that overall Northern Cardinal density in the park during the breeding season is approximately 0.011 pairs/hectare. Density below 3,000 feet is approximately 0.2 pairs/hectare.

References:

Alsop, F. J. III. 1991. Birds Of The Smokies. Great Smoky Mountains History Association, Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Bent, A. C. and Collaborators. 1996 - 2002. Northern Cardinal, In Life Histories of Familiar North American Birds, ed., Patricia Query Newforth.

Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union. 2002. Forty-third supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. The Auk 119: 897-906.

Ehrlich, P. R., D. S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The Birder's Handbook: a Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. Simon and Schuster, Inc., New York.

Elphick, C., J. B. Dunning, Jr., and D. A. Sibley, eds. 2001. The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Gough, G. A., Sauer, J. R., Iliff, M. Patuxent Bird Identification Infocenter. 1998. Version 97.1. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD.

Reeves, W. K., L. A. Durden, C. M. Ritzi, K. R. Beckham, P. E. Super, and B. M. O?Connor. 2007. Ectoparasites and other ectosymbiotic arthropods of vertebrates in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. Zootaxa.

Sibley, D. A. 2000. The Sibley Guide to Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Stupka, A. 1963. Notes on the Birds of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. University of Tennessee Press.

Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union. 1998. Check-list of North American Birds: the Species of Birds of North America from the Arctic through Panama, including the West Indies and Hawaiian Islands, 7th ed