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The cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a common bird in the southern Appalachian forest edge and throughout much of Virginia. It is a very handsome and vocal bird, singing all year and providing birders with many hours of enjoyment.
Management Techniques
The cardinal has fairly diverse dietary preferences, mainly hard seeds, fruits, and insects. It typically feeds on the ground or takes fruits from twig perches. The natural food of the omnivorous cardinal includes insects, bugs, beetles, seeds, dogwood, sumac, tree buds, and fleshy fruits. Dry grains and seeds are eaten. The diet of the adult is approximately 30% animal (arthropods and small mollusks) and 70% vegetable (grains, seed, fleshy fruits, and berries). The diet of juvenile cardinals is almost entirely animal. Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) berries are a well known staple of the cardinal. Winter diet supplements should concentrate on seeds and be available above snow cover while a wide diversity of supplements should probably be provided during other seasons.
Long and narrow food patches can be planted that will serve several pairs of these territorial birds. Keeping clearcuts or openings small and irregularly shaped will increase the number of territories. Plant food patches as close to the center of these openings as possible. This can help avoid them being in only one territory.
Leave red cedar growing in a few places around the opening. These trees provide good singing perches during breeding season and a source of food in the winter. Cedars provide shelter from the storms of winter, and a secluded nesting place in summer, as well as winter food. Cedar berries are often mentioned among the favorite foods of these birds.
Cardinals readily come to feeders. Management typically includes planting or encouraging vegetation to persist which provides seeds and fruits eaten by cardinals. (There are no cost-effectiveness studies for different food production; feeders are rejected for several reasons such as the potentials for weed seed introductions, forming disease centers, and tendencies to claim that "natural " is best. The Cardinals occupy fairly small territories. Many brushy shrub areas will suffice as cardinal habitat.
Cardinals heavily favor edge sites for nesting and roosting. Therefore, develop amoeba-shaped or long narrow cuts rather than those that are square or circular. This shape tends to increase the length of edge, thus making room for more individual territories. The cardinal has a variety of habitat preferences, mainly thickets and evergreen groves. The nest is placed low, seldom more than 10 feet (3 meters) above ground. It builds its nest in bushes, vines, and small trees. Recommended vegetation are dense shrubbery, such as blueberry, elderberry, pokeberry, spicebush, flowering dogwood, and juneberry. Stands of these types of vegetation can be planted in strips or patches. Cardinals will also nest in the dense masses of vines of the trumpetcreeper which provide safe hiding places. Interspersing stands of cedar and evergreens, as well as other species of preferred trees are likely to cause an increased in the population. Planting shrubbery, dense bushes, and vines may attract cardinals and increase a local population. Increase arthropod biomass by maintaining good leaf litter on the ground and a thick shrub layer.
There is no strong preference for type of vegetation, but rather for the structure of the vegetation. The desired structure can be encouraged by removing dense stands of large trees and allowing woody plants around smaller trees to form in dense clumps. Retaining some high vertical structure (greater than 15 ft.) is important since cardinals tend to avoid completely open areas. Ideal habitats include streamside thickets, open woods intermingled with dense shrubs, overgrown thickets with climbing vines, and the variety found in suburban areas.
Reducing mowing and reducing insecticide uses are both beneficial for improving the quantity and quality of the food base. Herbicides can be selectively used to encourage preferred vegetation.
Where territory sizes are small, large populations of cardinals can be maintained. Territory size decreased with increasing density of foliage from ground level to 10 feet (3 meters), and increasing density of shrubs. Since a closed forest stand generally precludes this type of development, cardinals are rare in such areas. Fledgling success is reduced as the number of large trees and basal area increases, thus another reason to thin, clear, put a stand in a rapid-rotation harvest schedule, or prevent the growth of dense tall stands.
Hazing measures may be taken to prevent nest predation and parasitism. Cowbirds are known to parasitize cardinal nests. Other nest predators known to destroy cardinal nests are cats, blue jays, house wrens (which puncture their eggs), and fox squirrels. Trap and relocate snakes, owls, feral cats, and small mammals from cardinal nesting areas. Discourage house wren (Troglodytes aedon) populations to prevent the breaking of cardinal eggs by these birds. Reduce catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) and mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) populations to decrease competition for suitable cardinal nest sites.
Records need to be kept to follow population responses to management over time. Remind and stress to the public, especially young grade-school students, that cardinals are protected by law. Educate the public about the possibilities of training cardinals to hand feed.
Not all of these suggestions are feasible for everyone. Land and money constraints will limit the amount of work that anyone can or will do. Several of these suggestions, used together, will very likely increase the number of cardinals on the land.
A contribution of Ellen Lee Shepard (1991),
Debbie Talbot, and
James P. Morgan (1992),
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
Submitted by Robert H. Giles, Jr.
This Web site is maintained by R. H.
Giles, Jr.
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Last revision July 17, 2002.