Who is the cardinal? The Northern Cardinal to be
exact—Cardinalis cardinalis? There is, in fact, more than one cardinal: two occur
in the U.S., but most English speakers know of only this aforementioned
species.
North America doesn’t have many true finches (family Fringillidae:
smallish birds known mostly for short thick bills), at least compared to the
similar climatic regions of Eurasia. In Western Europe for example, you’ll see
the chaffinch, bullfinch, hawfinch, goldfinch, siskin, and greenfinch—about 19
nesting species in all. This is three more than U.S. and Canada combined. If
this is a cause for jealousy, perhaps it should be. True finches combine some
of the finest plumages of reds, pinks, yellows, black etc., together with some
of the most notable and melodic of songs—think the canary, a finch indigenous
to Eastern Atlantic islands. On the other hand, one of the North American
finches, the evening grosbeak (a close relative of the European hawfinch) does
not even have a courtship song to speak of.
North America does have some things Europeans and Asians
don’t have; an example being the family Cardinalidae. This bird taxonomic
family is variously given the collective names the Cardinals, the American
Buntings, the tropical buntings, etc., each of which is uniquely problematic.
Not all of these birds resemble either the cardinal bird or it’s ecclesiastical
counterpart; and while the family is unique to the Americas following its split
from the larger and more global family Emberizidae (most buntings, American
sparrows, towhees etc.), it neither holds exclusive dibs to the name bunting in
the Americas, nor is it exclusively tropical.
Regardless of classification, these are some of the most
colorful birds , containing such American beauties as the painted bunting, the
indigo bunting, the scarlet tanager, and of course the aforementioned Northern
cardinal (the scientific namesake of the family). These birds are no slouch in
the vocal department either, though perhaps without the reputation of some of
their Fringillidae counterparts across the pond.
A defining quality of family Cardinalidae is the birds’
short stout, slightly pointed bills, efficacious in cracking the protective
coating of foodstuffs, whether hard seed pods, or large insects like
grasshoppers. While highly varied in terms of dimension and size, the thick
nature of the family beak assortment earns these birds inclusion in a much more
liberal, morphological rendering of the finch classification. Effectively,
these are America’s missing finches—more or less.
New England does have a goldfinch species, distinct, and more
yellow than its Eurasian cousin; California has two additional “goldfinch”
species. But if you live in Boston you’ll not see or hear the beautiful chaffinch,
a ubiquitous bird in British and mainland Europe--town and countryside. Instead
you will find the Northern Cardinal with its thick bill and party hat, and the
male's bright red suit with black mask.
Hopefully we can claim this fills part of whatever void is
left by some of the absent “Old World” favorites to the Eastern North American
landscape. Indeed finches fill important niches in the ecosystem, consuming and
often distributing plant seeds and hard fruit bodies to suitable growing sites,
and occasionally plucking a few crunchy arthropods. No doubt knowing this makes
the most connoisseur-ish of foodies hungry. A broad definition of “finch,”
extending beyond one taxonomic family, allows us to see other less related
species converging into similar ecological roles in different geographic
locations; thus, many a Cardinalidae representative evolved to take on the role
of finch, or even bunting where distantly related cousins haven’t managed to step
up.
An interesting thing about the Northern Cardinal in particular
if you live in, say, Boston, is the bird appears a relative newcomer in the
widespread northern portion of its range. Look at a map of the bird’s range
from fifty years ago and you’ll see it reaches no further north than New
Jersey. It’s not alone in this regard, with similar northward expansions into southern
Canada coming from the tufted titmouse, northern mockingbird, and the mourning
dove. I don’t see why the Northern Cardinal shouldn’t be welcome in the land of
my birth. But, why is this range expansion so? From what I know, the answer to
this question hasn’t been definitively answered. Each of these birds is
non-migratory; and thus increasingly favorable winter conditions likely resulted
in reduced seasonal mortality along the birds' northern frontier. These
conditions may include bird feeders, warming temperatures, other various
changes in the landscape related to urbanization, suburban development, and
forest succession following the abandonment of many farms. While interesting to
speculate, it remains elusory just what kind of bird assemblage existed
hundreds of years before the present: before the industrial revolution, before
European colonization, before people, and however far back you want to go.
