Unless you’ve lived your life inside a cave or outside much of North America, you’ve probably seen a Northern Cardinal.
The Basics
The Northern Cardinal is a mid-sized, non-migratory songbird. The males are vivid red with a black mask, an orange beak, and a crest on top of the head. The females also have the bright orange beak but are grayish-brown in color with only tints of red on their wings, crest, and tail feathers. These birds live in woodlands, wetlands, shrublands, and gardens. They are ground feeders, eating mainly seeds, but they will also eat insects and fruit. Like other male animals, the Northern Cardinal marks its territory. But he does so with song. Both males and females produce clear, whistled song patterns. These patterns are repeated several times, then varied.
Did You Know…
- Upon first seeing these birds, European settlers called them cardinals because of their bright red color. It reminded them of the distinctive red caps and robes the cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church wore.
- The cardinal is the state bird of seven states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
- As babies, cardinals learn the songs they sing. Because of this, cardinals’ songs, like humans’ speech, will differ, depending on where they live.
- A male cardinal feeds seeds, beak-to-beak, to the female he is courting.
- Cardinals mate for life.
- The average lifespan of a cardinal is at least three years. The oldest banded wild cardinal lived fifteen years and nine months. The oldest captive cardinal was documented to have lived 28.5 years.
- Cardinals drink maple sap. They use holes made by sapsuckers.
- Numerous athletic teams use the cardinal as a mascot, including the MLB’s St Louis Cardinals and the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.
Meanings and Symbols
Not all birds migrate to warmer climates during the winter. The cardinal is one that stays put, standing strong through the cold as it waits for spring to arrive. It doesn’t even change color to better survive by being less noticeable. When it molts before winter, the new feathers are just as vibrant a red as the old ones.
Different people and societies have attributed different meanings to the cardinal. Much of this stems from seeing them in the winter, their vivid red plumage, a bright beacon in an otherwise dull brown or snowy white (if you’re lucky enough to live where there’s snow) landscape.
For the Native Americans, cardinals—also called redbirds—represent childcare, relationships, renewal, and wisdom. They’re seen as messengers of both good and bad news. For Christians, cardinals are symbols of joy and hope, faithfulness, sacrifice, and everlasting life.
Although no one is exactly sure how or when it happened, cardinals also became a symbol of Christmas. They appear in holiday decorations and on Christmas cards. For many people, a cardinal’s visit is a sign from a loved one who has passed. This may explain, in part, why the cardinal became part of Christmas, since at Christmas we tend to more often remember those loved ones who are no longer with us.
Did You Know…
- Not all cardinals are red. An abnormal condition of reduced pigmentation, means some have white or white patched plumage.
- An almost all-white cardinal is rare, affecting only about one in every 1800 cardinals.
An Unexpected Visitor
Because my Tennessee house was on the side of a hill, the only way to get onto the back deck was through the house. (Or by climbing the tree next to it.) I’d put a cat door in the screen door, which allowed my cat, Fluffy, to access the deck in nice weather and nap in the sun. (I never worried about him climbing down the tree. He knew what living outside was like. He’d been abandoned—or lost—and was hungry, fur-matted, and in need of a safe home when he’d wandered up to my house and begged entry.)
Anyway, one summer day, while on the phone to my company’s corporate headquarters in Alaska, I heard Fluffy coming up the stairs, crying as he made his way to my office. Like any parent, I knew the cries of my cat. He wasn’t upset or hurt but was carrying something he wanted to show me.
I swiveled around and froze. One of the female redbirds I fed hung unmoving from Fluffy’s mouth. Having gotten my attention, he dropped his offering and sat back, as if to say, “Look what I brought you, mama.” For a second, no one moved. Then all hell broke loose. Mrs. Redbird had been playing opossum, and as soon as she thought it was safe, she took flight.
Fluffy and I both gave chase. She flew into my bedroom, and I managed to shut the door before Fluffy could get inside. I quickly scooped him up and deposited him in another room before grabbing a plastic tub and lid. It wasn’t easy, but I finally managed to capture her, too, releasing her outside, scared but unhurt.
The Rest of the Story
I could say, “All’s well that ends well.” And, thankfully, that was true. But today, thinking about the lessons we can learn from cardinals, I could also add . . .
Learn from your mistakes.
Never give up.
There’s always hope.
Enjoy life to the fullest because you never know when it may end.
But the story doesn’t end there. The next day, only three birds (two males and one female) who regularly ate on my deck, chose to eat there. A lone female sat on a tree branch about a foot from the deck’s edge, her strident trills ignored by the three gorging themselves on birdseed.
I’m a writer, and we tend to look at things a little differently than most people. In this case, there was no question in my mind that the female doing all that “talking” was the one Fluffy had “given” to me the day before. I didn’t have to speak “redbird” to understand what she was saying. It went something like this . . .
“You fools! Why aren’t you listening to me! I told you there’s a cat lurking down there. It caught me yesterday and carried me into its lair. I almost had a heart attack I was so scared. Thankfully, I was smart enough to play dead until I had the chance to escape, which I did before he could eat me. But then I had to escape the cat and a human. Do you hear me? I almost died! It was a miracle I made it out alive! Stop eating! Let’s fly over to that safe, if sunflower-less, feeder next door. Are you listening! It’s not safe here!”
Did You Know…
- One year I counted eleven pairs of cardinals eating regularly at my bird feeders.
- I named my hilltop home Redbird Hill.
In Closing
This Christmas we have a hole in our hearts and in our family with Dad’s passing. Yes, there were tears, but way more laughter as we remembered with family and friends many of the things he said or did.
As we close out 2024, stop and reflect on the past, the present, and the future.
A cardinal in a tree behind my Tennessee house.
The loved ones and friends you’ve lost will always be alive in your heart. Remember the good times and happy memories with them. But be like the cardinal. Cherish and nurture your relationships with the living. They may not be here tomorrow.
Whatever you do, don’t give up when times get tough. You’ll survive. Like the redbird, be strong and resilient. Brighter days are ahead. Spring always comes again.
Finally, have the redbird’s courage and confidence, and grab life and its opportunities with both hands.