This is an original oil painting by Ruth Housley.  I was inspired to paint these Cardinals since I have them in my back yard feeding every day.  Since I put out a bird feeded I have
had Blue Jays, Cardinals, House Finches both male and female as well as a Brown Thrasher.  I have not seen a Brown
Thrasher before and it was such a pretty bird.

The Cardinal's identification has its crest, big conical bill, and black face set the male apart from any other red bird.  The brown
female always has some patches of red and a very conspicious red bill.  Young are like females but may be darker (little or no
red) and have a darker bill.

The habits of this bird is at home in any habitat that includes dense thickets and tangles near open areas---field edges, woodland borders, stream banks, open swamps, parks, and residential districts.  It is non-migratory, but individual birds wander extensively and in many
sections it is gradually local residents.

The voice of the Cardinal is rich, powerful, and pleasantly musical.  The song which often starts softly is a repetition of short, whistled phrases in which some notes are usually run together.  After a few phrases on one pitch  the bird generally changes to another.
A common song is written wet-year, wet-year, weet-weet-weet-weet-weet, another wburty, wburty, wburty, wburty.  Call note
is a sharp clink.

I also read in a bird book that the male during courting season will feed the female during the courtship.