Cardinal

Topping the Bill

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.