Northern
Cardinal.

• Length
  21–23.5 cm
• Wingspan
  25–31 cm
• Mass
  42–48 g
• Wing chord
  ♂ avg > ♀ ⚑
• Bill
  heavy, conical, red-orange

• Crest
  pointed, erectile crown
• Face
  black mask (♂); dusky (♀)
• Bill
  stout red-orange cone
• Male
  brilliant red overall
• Female
  warm brown, red tinges & crest
• Tail
  long, often held cocked

• Whistle
  clear cheer-cheer-cheer
• Phrase
  birdy-birdy · purty-purty
• Call note
  sharp metallic chip
• Singers
  both sexes sing

• Habitat
  thicket · woodland edge · feeders
• Range
  E. US to AZ/NM · S. to S. Mexico
• Movement
  non-migratory resident
• Trend
  range expanding north

• IUCN
  Least Concern
• On the patch
  permanent resident, all seasons
• Nest
  open cup in dense shrub
• Nest height
  ~1–3 m in dense cover
• Clutch
  3–4 (2–5) eggs
• Incubation
  12–13 days, ♀
• Broods
  2–3 per year
• Lifespan
  wild avg ~3 yr ⚑

• Obs. date
  __ / __ / ____
• Locality
  ____________
• Life bird
  ☐ confirmed

The log fields are the hook: this is Life List Nº 001 — the bird you write down first.

The same measurements as Datablock A, plotted on a shared axis beside the other plates in the guide. It is the order-of-magnitude story: at 21–23.5 cm the cardinal is a feeder songbird beside the heron's near-metre frame — read each bar as a published min–max range, not a point.

No other backyard bird combines the crest, the black mask and the heavy red bill. The female is a quieter version of the same plan — warm brown rather than red, but with the identical crest, mask trace and red-orange bill. Both sexes sing, which is unusual among North American songbirds; the female often sings from the nest.

The heavy conical bill and robust jaw muscles are the hallmark Cardinalidae adaptation: a seed-husking tool. Bars show, schematically, the relative share of the diet by food class — seed-heavy across the year, with insects rising in the breeding season to feed nestlings. (Qualitative, drawn from diet accounts — not a measured budget.)

A permanent resident — present every month on a temperate eastern patch. Song runs roughly February through August, with nesting from spring into late summer across two to three broods. (Months indicative, not locality-exact.)

• Subspecies
  ~19 recognised
• Largest race
  C. c. superbus (SW)
• Clutch
  3–4 (2–5) eggs
• Incubation
  12–13 days, ♀
• Fledge
  ~9–11 days after hatch

The song is a series of loud, clear, down-slurred whistles — cheer-cheer-cheer, often closing on a rapid trill — and unusually for a North American songbird both sexes sing. The sonogram plots frequency (kHz) against time; the falling whistle reads as a clean contour between roughly 1.5 and 4 kHz.

A familiar feeder bird that benefits from human-disturbed habitat — one reason the range keeps creeping north, alongside the Carolina Wren and Tufted Titmouse. Cardinals are territorial in the breeding season; a male will famously attack his own reflection in a window or wing mirror, mistaking it for a rival.

The male's red comes from carotenoid pigments taken up through the diet — a brighter male is, in effect, advertising better foraging. The female keeps the same architecture in warm brown with red wings, tail and crest. Molt is late summer through mid-autumn; the precise calendar varies, so we flag it rather than invent one.