The northern cardinal is a nonmigrator and is one of the common year-round birdfeeder birds in the Twin Cities area and throughout the southern half of Minnesota. The bright red males with black faces are unmistakable, though many consider the greenish-red females, who have the same conical beak and crest, to be equally beautiful. Both males and females are typically 8 inches long, have a 1-foot wingspan and weigh 1.5 ounces.

Cardinals are usually the earliest birds at the feeders in the morning and the last to leave at dusk, sometimes feeding so late during the winter days that we have trouble seeing them. They never tire of sunflower seeds but like cracked corn and other seeds, too. Always they prefer to feed on the ground or on a tray feeder. This bird more than any other has come to symbolize wild bird feeding.

The current range of the northern cardinal includes all of the eastern United States, west into the central plains, and extreme southern Canada. It also occurs locally in the southwestern states and Mexico. This is an expanded distribution from a century ago, as landscape changes have provided more habitat opportunities for cardinals.

Northern cardinals are fairly new to Minnesota. They first arrived in the southeastern part in the late 1800s, and it was not until the mid-1930s that they were established as permanent residents in the Twin Cities. Evergreens help provide shelter and may encourage range expansion. Insects, wild fruits and seeds are their natural foods.

Cardinals can live in different kinds of shrubby areas, away from people or right in our backyards. Look for them in edges of deciduous forests, farm windbreaks and urban woodlots. During the past few years observers have seen a few cardinals in the Brainerd and Lake Mille Lacs areas, along the North Shore and at other northern Minnesota locations.

Studies show that northern cardinals not only mate for life but remain with partners the whole year .