Red Cardinal by danob

Photography • Animals • posted on Feb 29, 2012

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Description

One of the highlights for me was capturing this lovely bird in the wild, and remembering that being territorial it came out of the bush at Corkscrew Swap when I mimicked it's call. The male sings in a loud, clear whistle from the top of a tree or another high location to defend his territory He will chase off other males entering his territory. He may mistake his image on various reflective surfaces as an invading male, and will fight his reflection relentlessly. The Northern Cardinal learns its songs, and as a result the songs vary regionally. It is able to easily distinguish the sex of another singing Northern Cardinal by its song alone. Mated pairs often travel together. Male often feeds the female as part of their courtship behavior Both sexes sing clear, whistled song patterns, which are repeated several times, then varied. Some common phrases are described as "cheeeer-a-dote, cheeer-a-dote-dote-dote," "purdy, purdy, purdy...whoit, whoit, whoit, whoit," "what-cheer, what-cheer... wheet, wheet, wheet, wheet" and cheer, cheer, cheer, what, what, what, what. The Northern Cardinal has a distinctive alarm call, a short metallic 'chip' sound. This call often is given when predators approach the nest, in order to give warning to the female and nestling's In some cases it will also utter a series of chipping notes. The frequency and volume of these notes increases as the threat becomes greater. This chipping noise is also used by a Cardinal pair to locate each other, especially during dusk hours when visibility wanes.