When we moved here to our country home (converted barn) it was a couple of weeks before Christmas. That first Christmas morning my husband and I woke up to snow, beautiful fluffy sparkly snow. We have 11 pine trees surrounding the barn. Of course the snow covered the pine branches. I looked out the front window , and there sitting on one of the pine branches was a bright red Cardinal. It looked like a Christmas card, all white with some green and red. I wish I would have had a camera ready at the time. It was just so perfect. It gave us that warm fuzzy Christmas feeling. As we sat and drank a cup of Hot Cocoa and a Christmas cookie. I hope we have fresh snow for Christmas this year. patti

Dorothy, I'm inclined to think that the long, cold spring was hard on them. We still were having freezing temperatures sporadically as late as the first week in May, and I am willing to bet that had a negative impact on their population. Bird populations do fluctuate naturally on their own too, although I think that the cardinal population here at our place does not fluctuate nearly as much as the population of some other birds. Other possibilities would include: ---heavy spraying of chemical pesticides aimed at pests like grasshoppers in your geographic region, even if you are not using chemical pesticides yourself. When the farmers and ranchers around us spray their pastures heavily because of a severe grasshopper infestation, our bird populations drop fairly quickly, and I feel certain the two are linked. ---as odd and counterintuitive as this will sound, some bird populations drop during years in which there is big cicada hatch. You'd expect the population of birds to soar since there are so many cicadas to eat, but that's not what happens. So, if you had a large number of cicadas this year, they could be responsible. Discovery magazine had a blog post about the relationship between the cicada population and the bird population back in either the summer or the fall. If I can find it, I'll link it. I don't think it offered any conclusions about the relationship between an increased cicada population and a decreased bird population, but it was an interesting article. As for the question of diet, I put out a blend of several different kinds of seeds and have cardinals there eating no matter what is in that mix. If I only put out cracked corn for the doves, I'll find cardinals eating the cracked corn. If I put out sunflower seeds or a wild bird mix that includes sunflower seeds, though, I'll have tons more cardinals. So, I find it hard to imagine that they are staying away because you've been putting out only sunflower seeds. If I don't put out anything at all, they go to the chicken run and eat hen scratch. While they seem to prefer sunflower seeds, they will eat whatever is available. I've never had them disappear because all that I put out was sunflower seeds. We had a lot of cardinals this summer, as we almost always do, but seem to have fewer now. One odd thing I have noticed is that the males are feeding at a spot on the edge of the woods where I normally feed deer, rabbits and squirrels. The females are feeding at a spot just outside my kitchen window where I put out a general songbird blend plus extra sunflower seeds. They are not always as segregated by sex as they have been this fall and winter, and I don't know why it is occurring. I guess the male birds did something stupid (grin) and the females are mad at them and are refusing to be seen in public with them until they straighten up and fly right, pun intended. Some years when we have a higher population of small predators, like bobcats and foxes, the bird population really seems to drop I don't know that the bobcat and fox population is up this year, but the bird population seems like it is down a little bit. We're having more trouble with the population of predators that are larger than bobcats, but I don't know if those larger predators bother with birds. If they are not showing up to eat anything/everything you have out for them in this cold, snowy, icy weather, I am inclined to think the population is at a down cycle and not that they don't like the food you are offering. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Discovery Blog Post: Cicadas/Birds

It's a baby cardinal! And it just finally left the artificial ficus while it's parents called to it from a nearby tree! It's little "mohawk" is in, and the colors are that of a baby cardinal and not a cowbird. It just was very reluctant to leave the nest. Yesterday, it began to crawl out further onto the branches of the ficus, chip-chipping and a parent would answer back. The parents have spent so much time with this particular fledgling...I have to wonder about the safety of the other two. They're still out there. The male comes flying out from under our window shrubs when blackbirds are in the front yard and issues his "alert." What a relief...but now, that little chipmunk from next door! I started tossing seed balls into their own shrubbery to keep the chipmunk away and am using live mealworms and safflower. Might have to take down the suet, since the cowheads/blackbirds seem to like it far too much and come into territory where the fledglings are hiding. I read they will fly within 20 days. It's now 14 days since I first noticed the birds were hatched. They could have hatched before I saw them. So when should they begin to fly? I know the parents do stay with them and "train" them.. But that chipmunk! Thank you all for responding to my "cardinal adventure." What a lovely song they sing. : ) ...And I just watched the little guy hop off with both parents very near. I don't hear them now. Just so they're all safe!

Female baby cardinals don't usually have the crest as fledglings. The males do. The females can easily be mistake for a sparrow as young fledglings (beak and feather pattern can help you tell difference) while the males begin to show orange and red hues pretty early. I've been feeding cardinal nestlings and parents for years now, they bring so much joy and will after time communicate with you. For example, mine are obsessed with blueberries. If I'm out of blueberries and don't put anything out, dad will pretty much "yell" at me now, or if I try to give them grapes or other berries instead he's even more annoyed LOL. And no, I'm not a crazy old bird lady. But birds understand more language than cats. My females are far more skittish, but my daddy cardinal has been with me 3 solid years now and will sit within a foot of me, let me move slowly, and allow me to talk to him. Mama, not so much. ;) As for size, cardinals fledge quite quickly (11 days, incubate for only 13), but remain fully dependent on parents for at least a full 20 days when their flying begins improving. They don't venture far from their parents for weeks afterwards. But by the time they're flying well, they're barely smaller than mom. You likely indeed saw mom feeding baby cardinal. A baby cowbird doesn't resemble a cardinal, though cardinal parents adopt, incubate, feed and fledge them as their own.