Northern cardinal, the state bird of Virginia

How to recognize it

The northern cardinal is roughly robin-sized, about 8 to 9 inches long. The male is bright red all over, with a tall pointed crest, black around the face and a thick, conical reddish bill. The female is a duller brownish bird with red accents, but she has the same crest, heavy reddish bill and fairly long tail. Young birds start out with dark bills.

The song is a loud, clear whistled series often written as what-cheer, cheer, cheer or purty-purty-purty, and the call is a sharp, metallic chip. Unusually among songbirds, both males and females sing a great deal.

How it lives

Cardinals feed mostly by hopping on the ground or through low shrubs, eating seeds, fruit and insects such as beetles, grasshoppers and caterpillars, and they feed their nestlings largely on insects. Females build cup nests in dense shrubs a few feet off the ground and may raise two or three broods a year. Males defend their territories by singing, and they sometimes attack their own reflections.

Where to see one in Virginia

Cardinals live almost everywhere in Virginia, all year. The second state breeding bird atlas found them breeding in every one of the 133 counties and cities it mapped, and it estimated the highest densities in urban areas such as Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach, Northern Virginia and Richmond. They are easy to see at backyard feeders, and atlas volunteers recorded breeding activity from mid-February to mid-October.

The most abundant bird

The Second Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas, based on fieldwork from 2016 to 2020, estimated about 3,079,000 cardinals in the state, making it the most abundant of the species it modeled. Breeding Bird Survey data show a stable long-term trend in Virginia.

The state bird since 1950

The General Assembly chose the cardinal as the state bird in January 1950. It is one of the most popular state birds: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia have also chosen it.