I learned a fun fact about cardinals recently. I was writing the end of Tangled Roots and had the need for a bird to appear in a scene and sing a bit of encouragement. This particular bird is representative of a deceased female character, and thus I needed the bird to be recognizably female. (Yes, my brain is that specific about details.) Bonus points for a song that sounded hopeful or uplifting.

The idea that only male songbirds sing is a myth, but in North America only about half of our common songbirds include singing females. The cardinal is among them, thankfully, and it was perfect that this particular female cardinal could sing their iconic “cheer-cheer-cheer” song. Female cardinals are also strikingly beautiful, softer in color than their male counterparts but much prettier than many female songbirds. (Males often have the standout coloration.)

Cardinals are also especially fun to watch. Though they are not strictly mate-for-life birds, they do “couple up” for one or more years. We often observe pairings at our bird feeders. The male often comes in first, followed by the female. Beak to beak feedings are common, especially when breeding and raising young.

It was easy enough to go grab a few pix of a current pairing this summer for you. All I had to do was “bait” a tree limb with black sunflower seeds and set up the trail cam for an hour:

As you may know from other Driftless Thursday posts, I have become quite the birder since retiring to the Driftless Area of Wisconsin. Check out:

• Guess The Bird for a rare color mutation of a particular sparrow
• Turkey Vultures for how this bird ties in to Driftless Spirits
• “Little Red” for why red-breasted nuthatches are among my favorites