One of the first things that will happen to you once someone knows you鈥檙e a birder is that they鈥檒l tell you they鈥檝e got a weird bird out by their feeder. It鈥檚 brownish, they鈥檒l say, and has a crest and some red on it. It looks like a cardinal, sort of, but they know what a cardinal looks like and this isn鈥檛 quite it but it does have some red on it鈥
Stop them. Stop them right there. Look them in the eye and with a firm but sympathetic voice explain, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a female cardinal.鈥
The ability to identify a female Northern Cardinal is one of the most important first steps towards becoming a birder, because, for whatever reason, everyone asks. The same way your one friend with a pickup truck is always asked to help on moving day, you鈥檒l be sent a constant stream of identification requests once your friends and family know you鈥檙e into birds. There鈥檒l be emails with confusing descriptions, blurry photos of backyard feeders, and even audio clips recorded out an open bedroom window. The answer to the majority of these queries, I鈥檝e found, is 鈥渇emale cardinal.鈥
It鈥檚 something all birders have to deal with, from your rank beginners to your Roger Tory Petersons. Heck, I have no evidence to back this up, but I bet John James 探花精选 himself had a special bin in his office where he鈥檇 toss all the female cardinal skins sent to him by amateur ornithologists thinking they鈥檇 found a new species.
There are a few reasons why the female cardinal question comes up so much. First, Northern Cardinals are common and conspicuous birds, east of the Rocky Mountains anyway. And second, they regularly show up at feeders, so they鈥檙e seen by a lot of casual birders. Plus, they鈥檝e got an outsized role in popular culture, as namesake for and sports teams (even if they never get the bill color right).
Yet it鈥檚 always the flashy male getting the attention鈥攅ven when it鈥檚 a . Despite their constant accompaniment of the males, despite the fact that they show up at the feeders just as much as the males do, the drabber female cardinals get no love.
So, how do you identify a female Northern cardinal? It鈥檚 easy. Structurally, they鈥檙e identical to their male counterparts, except that where males are bright red, females are mostly brown. If you see a bird that looks like a brown cardinal, and is hopping around the underbrush like a cardinal鈥攅xcept it's brown鈥攁nd maybe hanging out with a bright red cardinal, you鈥檙e looking at a female cardinal.
To erase any doubt and ensure that you don鈥檛 mistake a female cardinal for some other brownish bird you may find in the backyard鈥攁 big sparrow or a mockingbird, say鈥攈ere鈥檚 a foolproof tip: Look at the bill. Both sexes of Northern Cardinal have bright orange (!) bills, but while the bill blends in with the bright males, it stands out like Rudolph鈥檚 nose on the female. When you see that bright orange honker on a brown bird, you know instantly what you鈥檝e got. You鈥檙e now prepared to answer any questions about what your aunt has at her feeder.
Beyond your friends鈥 and family鈥檚 birding needs, there are additional reasons to learn to identify female cardinals. Learning the difference between male and female cardinals opens the door to a host of other identification tricks that you can apply to other species. For example, sexual dimorphism, the scientific term for differences in appearance between males and females of a species, is common in birds (in the majority of all birds the males are brighter than the females). For example, if you see a bird that acts and sounds like an American goldfinch but is drab all over? It might be a female. Same goes for a host of warblers, towhees, ducks, orioles, and other birds. Once you get the hang of it, a number of mystery birds will seem incredibly obvious.
And one last reason to pay attention to female cardinals is their calls. Male and female cardinals call back and forth to each other almost constantly, using a distinctive sharp, metallic tick! . Once you start listening for that call you鈥檒l start hearing it everywhere there are cardinals. Then you鈥檒l start hearing it before you see the cardinals, and you鈥檒l know that the mystery bird skulking in that bush is a cardinal. Once that happens, my friend, you鈥檙e ear-birding and have dipped your toe into the pool of advanced birding.
So there you have it鈥攍earn to identify a female cardinal and you鈥檒l not only be able to answer the most common bird identification question coming your way but you鈥檒l also start down the road of becoming a bona fide hardcore ear-birder. Good work!