Northern Cardinal

Cardinalis cardinalis

The northern cardinal, also commonly known as the common cardinal, red cardinal, or simply cardinal, is a bird in the genus Cardinalis. It can be found in southeastern Canada, through the eastern United States from Maine to Minnesota to Texas, New Mexico, southern Arizona, southern California and south through Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. It is also an introduced species in a few locations such as Bermuda and all major islands of Hawaii since its introduction in 1929. Its habitat includes woodlands, gardens, shrublands, and wetlands. It is the state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 17,938,812 times across 45 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 18°C (typically 17 to 18°C, from 5 areas). That holds across 25° of latitude, which suggests its timing follows temperature more than the calendar.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.