The Northern Cardinal has undergone an extensive northward range expansion over the last two centuries. A year-round resident throughout its range, it was once considered a southern species by Bent [1968]. Now, however, cardinals are distributed across the whole eastern U.S. to the central states and south to eastern portions of Mexico and Central America [Halkin and Linville 1999 (BNA)]. Their range also includes southern Baja California and the southernmost regions of eastern Canada [Halkin and Linville 1999 (BNA)]. They were successfully introduced into the Hawaiian Islands, coastal southern California and Bermuda [AOU 1998]. The range expansion has occurred since the early to mid-1880s and is thought to be a result of a combination of factors: a warmer climate, increased edge habitat caused by clearing of forests, and increased availability of food at backyard feeders in the winter [Halkin and Linville 1999 (BNA)]. In the mid-1900s, at the time of Bent’s [1968] account, the cardinal was considered a bird “we rarely see in New England.” Cardinals first bred in Massachusetts in 1961, including a nest at Pittsfield [B of M], in Vermont in 1962 [Halkin and Linville 1999 (BNA)]; and in Maine in 1969 [Halkin and Linville 1999 (BNA)]. In New England they are now resident in all but the higher mountains and north Maine [Alden 1998]. Breeding Bird Survey data indicate increasing population density in New England in all time periods, e.g. Sauer et al. [2001]; while Manomet migration banding data from eastern Massachusetts has recorded increases of 168% (spring) and 135 % (fall) in seasonally dispersing cardinals between 1970-2001 [Lloyd-Evans and Atwood 2004].
Northern Cardinals inhabit thickets and open woodlands with shrubs, often occurring in plantings near houses and other buildings [Bent 1968, (BNA)]. They eat seeds, fruits, and insects, with plant material comprising about 70% of their diet [Bent 1968]. Banding studies have demonstrated that cardinals are among the most sedentary of bird species, seldom wandering far from their home range [Halkin and Linville 1999 (BNA)]. Limited movements do occur, but they show little directional pattern [Halkin and Linville 1999 (BNA)]. Although fall movements have been reported [e.g. Bent 1968], it is believed that these individuals are mostly immatures and that the movement is a dispersal rather than a true migration [Halkin and Linville 1999 (BNA)]. Some fall movements tend north and northeast [Bent 1968] and it has been suggested that the juveniles that disperse in these directions are responsible for the northward range expansion of the species [Halkin and Linville 1999 (BNA)].
The adjectival “Northern” part of the name was added by the AOU in 1983 to distinguish the species from the Vermilion Cardinal (C. phoeniceus) and other cardinal species of South America. The old southern name of Redbird is still used as an alternate name in Bermuda [Wingate 1973].
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Observations
Northern Cardinal is a year round resident throughout New England; first recorded in the region about 1950, they have now spread to SE Canada. The highest concentrations were always recorded at A sites, fewer at B sites and only 2 birds (in 3 years) at C sites away from the rivers. Cardinals are not forest birds, and were confined to shrubby habitats at the river edges. Densities were significantly higher in CT, there were very few in MA and VT, but some were recorded in shrubby river margins in NH.
This permanent resident species was present in all periods; the apparent slight peak in period 2 is likely to be an artifact of increased singing or visibility in early May. |
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