Bird of the Year

Information - Bird of the Year

April

Congratulations to Dorval citizens for electing the Northern Cardinal as our “Bird of 2024”! The Cardinal is iconic and the City’s only red bird. The female is pale brown but has the same big crest and large pink beak as the bright red male. 

Right now, the cardinals in our community are busy building nests and incubating eggs. The females are building the nests with an outer layer of twigs and a soft inner cup of bark strips, leaves, grass, and pine needles by stamping the material into place then turning and repeating to make a nest just their size. Then they lay two to five pale blue or green eggs with darker spots. 

April is an exciting time for observing birds, including during the City Nature Challenge, taking place from April 26 to 29. Dorval is encouraging participation during this event through the use of the community science tool iNaturalist. “Community science” tools (like iNaturalist and eBird) invite users to report bird observations and can offer valuable data for ecological studies and to guide conservation decisions. They also enable people to connect with nature while reaping the health benefits! If you see or hear a Northern Cardinal (or any other wildlife) upload your sightings to iNaturalist during the City Nature Challenge.

May

By now the first batch of cardinal eggs has hatched, and parents are busy feeding nestlings. They particularly love insects, especially juicy caterpillars! Most caterpillars cannot survive on anything but native plants, so planting native trees and plants in your garden can help cardinals! 

Chicks leave the nest in about 10 days, then are fed by the father for another month, while the mother sets to work building a new nest. Parents can raise up to four broods in a year, so breeding season for cardinals is long and busy! 

Saturday, May 18, is the Dorval Environment and Gardening Day during which compost, mulch, and native milkweed plants will be given away. The Dorval Horticultural Society will also be holding their annual perennial plant sale, which includes an offering of native plants.  

Also be sure to circle Saturday, May 11, on your calendar – it's the spring edition of World Migratory Bird Day! While cardinals do not migrate, many of the other birds we are fortunate to have in Dorval do, and a variety of events are taking place for the occasion.

June

Northern cardinals eat a varied diet of mostly seeds, flowers, and wild fruits, but they also consume insects, spiders, centipedes, and snails. They forage on the ground or in bushes and trees. The best way to attract cardinals to your yard is to provide good foraging and nesting sites. Grow native plants that provide food and habitat throughout the breeding season, such as American elderberry, wild cherries, wild grapes, and serviceberry (Amelanchier). 

You can find out more about bird-friendly gardening practices in the new “Best Bird Practices” guide that the Bird Committee has recently prepared. This guide has a variety of tips and additional resources with more information about how to reduce risks for birds, maintain feeders, and other considerate practices.

July

To get better acquainted with our “bird of 2024”, we should look at how Northern Cardinals communicate! And the logical question to then ask is - why do birds sing? They do so primarily to mark their territory and attract mates. But they can also use it to protect their families, to defend their space and to demonstrate they are healthy and present. 

Birds have two well-known forms of communication: a call, which is often short and rapid, which they use when on the move or to communicate with each other, and a song, which is longer and more complex, which they use to make their presence known. The Northern Cardinal's song is omnipresent in urban areas in the summer, and various examples can be heard at the following website. 

Male Cardinals may sing to defend nesting territory, and attack intruding males (or possibly his own reflection in windows and mirrors). The male's song is easy to recognize, generally powerful and long, and distinctive for its whistled "cheer, cheer, cheer" or "birdie, birdie, birdie". 

The female Cardinal is one of the only female birds that sings, mainly in spring, but also while sitting on the nest. Perhaps this gives the male information about when to bring food to the nest? It might also alert the male as to whether there are predators nearby. Singing can also be a part of courtship for Northern Cardinals, which we will discuss next month!

August

March, May, June, and July are the mating periods of Northern Cardinals. The female will sing in spring before she starts nesting. Males will try to attract females by raising their head high, swaying back and forth, perhaps to display their feathers, and singing softly. Male Cardinals will also feed the females seeds in a method known as “beak to beak”. It gives the impression that the Cardinals are kissing.

A mated pair of Northern Cardinals may sing similar songs. They are considered “monogamous”, as they usually mate for a year or longer, and sometimes for life. However, “divorces” can occur, and if one bird of the pair dies, the other will quickly look for a new mate.

September

Cardinal nests, mostly built by the female, are open cups with a messy layer of coarse twigs on the outside, then a soft inner cup of bark strips, leaves, grass, and pine needles, shaped by the female as she turns in the nest as she works, wrapping the material into place with her feet. This often takes three to nine days to complete! They do not use nesting boxes (bird houses) and usually hide their nest in dense shrubs, vines, or low trees, around three to ten feet above the ground. 

The eggs are pale blue or light green, with brown, purple, or gray markings. The female cardinal incubates the eggs, while the male can bring food. The first set of two to five eggs is usually laid in March or April, with up to four broods being produced throughout the year, typically ending in mid-August. Cardinals do not reuse their nests. 

Chicks hatch in about 11 to 13 days and leave the nest nine or ten days later. Both parents will feed them for about a month, however, on a diet of mostly insects. This highlights the importance of providing native trees and plants that can host insects such as butterflies, whose caterpillars are a valuable food source. The male may continue to feed the fledglings while the female begins building the next nest.

October

In late summer and early fall after the breeding season has ended and while food is still abundant, northern cardinals molt their feathers and grow new ones. During this time, it is possible that you will see a bald-looking cardinal! For most birds, feathers are lost a few at a time or as new feathers replace the old ones.  But cardinals often lose all or nearly all of their head feathers at once. Their feathers will grow back within a few weeks. This is an energy intensive time of year so they will need to eat plenty of food.

Cardinals are in fact our only red bird with a crest. The female is duller, but shares the crest, and large pink bill, with a longish tail. 

But why are they red? It is thanks to their diet, which consists of carotenoid-rich fruits and berries.  To help them keep their colour, you can keep native fruit trees and bushes in your backyard such as wild grapes, raspberries, apple trees or dogwood berries which are very popular with them.  If the cardinal is unable to find berries, their colour will gradually begin to fade. On rare occasions when there is a lack of red pigment in the feathers of these birds, it can be replaced by a yellow-orange colour and you might see a yellow cardinal!

November

As mentioned last month, carotenoid-rich fruits and berries help give cardinals their vibrant red plumage. In addition to planting options in your yard, the right choice of seed in your feeders can help attract and nourish cardinals!

Cardinals are particularly fond of sunflower seeds, but you can also include safflower seeds if you want to add variety. Safflower seeds are another source of carotenoids. For more details on feeders, including placement and maintenance tips, check out our Best Bird Practices guide, which has a section dedicated to this topic.

While many birds migrate for the winter, Northern cardinals do not, so you can keep your feeder active year-round! Be sure to look into seasonal feed types and maintenance practices, as weather and birds' nutritional needs shift throughout the year.

Some cardinals stay within their breeding territories year-round, while others roost communally in flocks during winter. Here, we’re at the northern edge of their range, so you may not see cardinals much further north, but they can be found as far south as Belize! Despite this range, our local cardinals are still classified as Northern cardinals to distinguish them from other cardinal species further south.

December

As our “Year of the Northern cardinal” winds down, here are some fun, miscellaneous pieces of information about the Northern cardinal to end 2024.

Cardinals have been known to practice “anting”, which is when they can be found with ants, or other insects, crawling all over them. But don’t be alarmed, this is believed to help protect the cardinal from harmful parasites due to formic acid secreted by the ants! 

The cardinal has been gradually expanding its nesting range. It was first observed in Ontario in 1901 at Pointe-Pelee, and the first recorded sighting in Quebec was only in 1964. In the Montreal region, it was only in the 1980s that cardinals began to be seen! 

The oldest recorded Northern cardinal was 15 years and 9 months old (but their average lifespan is 3 to 5 years).

The bright red plumage of the Northern cardinal was the inspiration for its common name, which is a reference to the robes and caps worn by Roman Catholic Church cardinals. 

Due to a very rare genetic mutation, some Northern cardinals, despite their diet, will never be red, and remain orange-yellow. 

While not really fact, a bright red cardinal contrasting against a snowy landscape is a picturesque image we can all appreciate. Thank you for reading up on this beautiful bird throughout the year and for your interest in our local biodiversity!