EASTERN CARDINAL 9 



At feeding stations, cardinals seem to prefer sunflower seeds, but 

 they also eat raisins, pieces of apples, corn bread, wheat bread, 

 scratch feed, and millet. 



Behavior. — In the cardinal we have a rare combination of good 

 qualities, brilliant plumage, a rich and pleasing voice, beneficial food 

 habits, and devotion to its mate and family. Many of our best 

 singers are not clothed in brilliant plumage, and many of our hand- 

 somest birds are not gifted musicians. 



Dispositions vary among individuals. Mrs. Nice (1931) writes, 

 regarding birds that visited her feeding station: "Three were amiable 

 birds, but the other two were quite the opposite, tyrannizing over 

 the smaller birds, especially Harris Sparrows, and driving away their 

 future mates; both were afraid of Mockingbirds. But from late 

 March to September the male is a model husband and father, bestow- 

 ing sunflower seeds upon his mate and feeding the young of the first 

 brood almost up to the day the second brood hatches, in one case 

 even two days afterwards! Two different years young males have 

 been fed by their fathers for 17 days after they were fully grown, till 

 July 10 and Sept. 30, respectively!" 



Although amiable at times, the cardinal is generally mildly domi- 

 nant at feeding stations and sometimes decidedly belligerent, as indi- 

 cated in some of the following notes from Mrs. Laskey: "There have 

 been occasional instances of dominance; usually one male runs at 

 another male, one female at another female. One moves out of the 

 way but does not leave. 



"At a ground feeding spot, where sunflower seed had been placed, 

 two male cardinals rose at least 5 feet into the air as they struck at 

 each other. 



"Some groups are made up of cardinals that are mild mannered or 

 only mildly domineering. Again, there may be one or more indi- 

 viduals that are pugnacious and continually driving their companions 

 away, either by running at them or actually fighting." 



Bayard H. Christy (1942) quotes Maurice Brooks of West Virginia 

 University: 



Cardinals are decidedly social, particularly in the winter. Aggregations that 

 gather about a favorite feeding place are almost always fairly evenly divided in 

 the matter of sex, since most of the birds seem to remain mated, at least through- 

 out a year's time. During the early winter months a male cardinal would not 

 tolerate the presence of a female, even his mate, on a small feeding shelf. An 

 intruding cardinal was either driven off, or it in turn drove off the first. Other 

 and smaller song-birds were, however, tolerated without any threatening move- 

 ments. In late winter and early spring male birds became much tolerant of fe- 

 males, and both sexes often fed together. During the nesting season the female, 

 on her brief visits to the feeding shelf, was often intolerant of the presence of a 

 male. 



