Winter Cardinals!

Yesterday morning, just after 7:30 when it was still not quite light outside, I heard my first "winter" cardinal singing up the sun.

Cardinals nest here, multiple pairs each raising two broods over the summer, and they remain with us all winter long too. We see them on our bird feeders: the male's bright red feathers more subdued in winter, the female olive with flushes of red and red beak.



(These aren't my pictures!)

But: cardinals are generally quite silent during the shortest days of the year.

And then, in late January or early February, they begin their dawn chorus. First one, then several, often wakening me. So cheery!

www.allaboutbirds.org/gu
ide/Northern_Cardinal/sounds