Cardinal, the state bird of Illinois

How to recognize it

The northern cardinal is a fairly large, long-tailed songbird with a pointed crest and a short, very thick bill made for cracking seeds. It is a little smaller than an American robin.

The male is bright red all over, with a black face around a reddish bill. The female is pale brown with warm red tinges on her crest, wings and tail, and she has the same black face and red-orange bill. Young cardinals look like females but have a dark bill. Cardinals often sit hunched, with the tail pointing straight down.

Both males and females sing, which is unusual among North American songbirds. The song is a series of loud, clear whistles, often written as cheer, cheer, cheer or birdie, birdie, birdie. The call is a sharp, metallic chip.

How it lives

Cardinals hop through low branches and forage on or near the ground. In the breeding season they usually travel in pairs; in winter they may gather in flocks of a dozen or more. They eat mostly seeds and fruit, such as wild grapes, dogwood berries, sumac and hackberries, along with corn and sunflower seeds at feeders, and they feed insects to their nestlings.

Spreading north

Cardinals live in shrubby places: forest edges, hedgerows, overgrown fields, thickets, backyards and parks. The spread of towns and suburbs, with their shrubs and bird feeders, has helped them push their range northward over the past century. In Illinois they were once considered rare in the northern part of the state, but they have been common there since about 1900. Today they live in every part of Illinois year-round.

Where to see one

Cardinals are frequent visitors to backyard feeders all over Illinois, especially those offering sunflower seed. Winter is the easiest season to spot them, when the red males stand out against snow and bare branches.

Thriving

The northern cardinal is doing well. The North American Breeding Bird Survey shows a slight increase since 1966, and Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population at about 130 million birds.

Chosen by schoolchildren

In 1928 the Macomb branch of the National Federation of Professional Women’s Clubs proposed letting Illinois schoolchildren pick a state bird. The cardinal won the vote, ahead of the bluebird, the meadowlark, the quail and the oriole, and the legislature adopted it in 1929. It is now section 10 of the State Designations Act. Illinois is one of seven states with the cardinal as state bird; Kentucky was the first, in 1926.