The Northern Cardinal is the flash of impossible red that stops people mid-conversation. Males are brilliant crimson with a black mask and a tall crest; females wear warm buff-brown with red accents in the wings, tail, and crest — and many birders find them the more beautiful of the pair. Cardinals do not migrate: the same birds that sing from spring treetops are the ones burning against February snow.
Cardinals are a conservation success story that required no rescue — over the past century they have steadily expanded north, and backyard feeders helped pull them across Michigan. Listen for the clear, whistled "birdy-birdy-birdy" and "cheer-cheer-cheer" songs beginning on the first mild days of late winter; unusually for songbirds, females sing too.
Seeds and wild fruit form the core of the diet, with insects added heavily in summer — nestlings are raised almost entirely on them. At feeders, cardinals are devoted to black-oil sunflower and safflower seed, favoring platform and hopper feeders they can grip while facing forward.
Any day of the year. Cardinals are non-migratory residents, most easily found at feeders and woodland edges. They're most vocal from late February through July, and most striking against fresh snow.
Males are vivid red all over with a black face mask. Females are soft buff-brown with red tinges in the crest, wings, and tail, and an orange bill. Both wear the tall crest.
Black-oil sunflower or safflower seed in a platform or hopper feeder, dense shrubs for cover and nesting, and a reliable water source. They're often the first birds at the feeder at dawn and the last at dusk.
During breeding season, a cardinal may attack its own reflection, mistaking it for a rival on its territory. It's exhausting for the bird but rarely harmful — break up the reflection on the outside of the glass and it will stop.
They are. Numbers are highest from April through July, and the birds do not leave the state, though individuals shift around locally between nesting cover, woodlots, and feeders as food supplies change.
Juvenile cardinals have a dark gray-black bill rather than the adult's coral-orange, along with a fluffier crest and duller plumage. Young males are a patchy mix of buff and red. The bill turns orange over their first fall, which is the easiest way to age one at a feeder.
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