"I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter"

Just before and after a winter storm, we get a lot of bird and bunny action around the feeders. The little birds come and go quickly, and there are occasionally kerfuffles among the larger birds, such as the blue jays. Where food is involved, especially the colder and snowier it gets, the competition can be fierce!

My husband and I always worry about the Lady Cardinal, because she is a well-mannered bird, and tends to hang back from the feeders. She does not get involved in the competitions. Instead, she sits back and waits until everyone else is gone. Often times, she ends up with nothing but an empty plate. At the very end, though, sometimes my husband takes out a special little tray of peanuts, just for her.

The male cardinal, looking like a Valentine personified in his bright red suit, can often be seen visiting the feeder. I hear him before I see him. The cardinal's song sometimes sounds a lot like those old-fashioned bubble lights my Grammy used to have.

And on this weekend, I suddenly noticed something else about his behavior, something I had never seen before, in spite of all of my watching. (Which begs the question: Yes, you may be watching, but are you SEEING?)

Sometimes, when the male cardinal is at the feeder and his Lady Love is nearby, he takes a peanut or two from the feeder . . . and he flies over to her with his love gift, and he feeds them to her, beak to beak, like a mother to a child. Ah yes, this bird's a lover, not a fighter . . .

The song that came to mind as I witnessed this behavior . . . I could hear Michael Jackson singing it, with help from Paul McCartney . . . The Girl Is Mine.

P.S. Learn more about the northern cardinal and listen to its songs at the Cornell Ornithology Web site.

P.P.S. The bright red bird in this photo is the male cardinal. The female is a bit more muted in color. For those who are interested in seeing what this fellow's mate might look like, here is a link to a photo of a female cardinal that I took at Millbrook Marsh a few years back.