Photo of the Month - January 2008

The Novakovics Family -- Lisa, Steve, and Emily -- sent us this greeting along with their beautuiful image of a cardinal:

Hello Nature Canada! Happy New Year!

We have been watching this cardinal nibbling at our feeder for quite some time. And finally we got a great snapshot of him! We live in Baldwin, Ontario and have many female and male cardinals in our neighborhood, and enjoy watching them. Here is a picture and some info for you to view and maybe this will be in your upcoming newsletter?

We'll keep watching.....
Lisa, Steve and Emily Novakovics

Cardinal Facts

• Males are bright red with black mask from eyes to throat.
  Females and young of this species are buffy brown, with
  touches of red on the crest, wings, tail, and breast.
  
  
• Both male and female have the pointed crests and thick red beaks.
  
  
• The cardinal is about 7 1/2 to 9 inches.
  
  
• Their nest is made from twigs, roots, strips of bark and lined
  with grass in thick bushes or vines fairly low to the ground.
  Cardinals lay 3 to 4 pale bluish white eggs that are finely
  spotted with reddish brown.
  
  
• Food is grapes, holly, wild fruits, wild seeds and insects.
  
  
• Their loud song is given also by females, which is unusual in
  northern songbirds; it may be heard on the first sunny days of
  late winter.
  

Thank you Lisa, Steve and Emily, for the great photo.