Yes, another bird post.  Trust me, I have a lot more to go.  Today’s focus is the Cardinal.

This bird has a special place in my heart for two reasons.. 1) it is my state bird (and what I didn’t know, it was apparently selected by Illinois school children back in 1928 and then made official in 1929 by the General Assembly) and 2) I accidently shot a cardinal with a BB gun (my brothers’ single cock muzzle loading Daisy) when I was a little kid.  Yes… it was an accident – I was shooting at a hedge apple when I either had my sites off or the dumb bird decided to land in the fire zone.  Whatever the reason, the bird literally locked his talons onto the branch, rolled forward until it was hanging upside down and proceeded to shoot blood out its neck right at me.   The fact that I can still remember the exact spot I was standing and every detail of the scene gives an indication of the traumatic impact that had on me as a little kid.  A beautiful (and protected) bird struck down in his prime because I wasn’t careful.  I have never set my gun sights on any form of bird to this date.  This is another reason I try to save little birds (see Part 4)- so far 1 adult accidently killed and 3 little birds saved

From an observation perspective the cardinal is pretty cautious…

The few that show up at my feeders are not regulars and tend to only stay for a short period of time.  I have never seen them aggressive to other birds and are generally pretty compatible with almost all the birds that come to feast.  I generally see just the male, but I do have some shots which I will post in the future that show the male and female together.   The apparently like the larger seed as well since they didn’t show up until the second feeder was set up.  At one point before I set up any of the feeders, I had about 6 males and 3 females hanging in the trees around the house.  Their numbers have decreased, but there is generally one or two who visit once a week or so.

I actually laughed at the next set of pictures.  The first one looks like the cardinal is checking out a yellow finch on another branch.

In the following shot, it looks like finch noticed the cardinal was staring at him and must have responded with an evil eye…. because it looks like it scared the crap out of the cardinal

in reality, the wind was blowing so hard I couldn’t believe the birds could even hold onto the branch.  I still think they are cool birds and a fine symbol for my favorite Major League baseball team.  I’ll leave you with my favorite cardinal photograph so far.  I wish it was still a little crisper, but I like how it stands out from the tree trunk behind it.