Ashley and Crippen Photographers, Toronto|Corporate Headshots/Executive Headshots 

Nature

Northern Cardinal

The Northern Cardinal is common both in the east and the southwest in a wide variety of habitats, even city parks and backyards as long as there is sufficient cover. The Cardinal not only returns to the same breeding area, pairs mate for life. It nests up to twelve feet above the ground, building a loosely woven cup of twigs and plant fibers in a shrub or thicket, in which it lays three or four pale green eggs with brown-lilac spots. These are incubated by the female for just under two weeks, while the male provides food and helps feed the nestlings after they have hatched. The adult is a crested bird with a long tail and large triangular bill. The male is bright red, with a black face and throat and a red bill. The female is olive-buff with a reddish crest, wings and tail and the juvenile is reddish-buff with a black bill. The Northern Cardinal feeds mainly on the ground, out in the open. It eats fruits, seeds and insects and regularly comes to bird feeders in winter, particularly for sunflower seeds