Northern Cardinal
The Northern cardinal is frequently seen in southern Ontario. The male Northern cardinal has a bright red plumage from head to tail. The female Northern cardinal has a subdued plumage; a faded orange-brown colour. The juvenile Northern cardinal is fairly similar in appearance to the female cardinal; also a dull orange-brown colour. All Northern cardinals have a distinctive cap.
The male cardinal sings frequently throughout the day while perched at the top of a tall tree. His song is loud and distinctive. As far as I have noticed, the female and juvenile Northern cardinals do not sing.
The Northern cardinals are seed eaters. Thus, they are frequent visitors to feeders. They seem to particularly like sunflowers. I assume they also like berries. They are offten seen eating individually at the feeder, but also sometimes in pairs and occasionally as a family. They have a distinct tik-tik vocalization when they are eating.
Unlike the resident robins, the Northern cardinals have yet to visit the bird bath to drink water or to take a bath. Perhaps they obtain water from berries or maybe they visit the creek which is nearby in the ravine.
Cardinals eating from the feeders
This compilation video features the male, female and juvenile Northern cardinals visiting the backyard feeders. My apologies for the relatively poor quality of the video footage due to the strong summer sunlight shining through the tree.
The video is hosted on YouTube because of its large file size. New segments will be added weekly.