Cardinals in the garden

I usually don’t like a show off but when it comes to the brilliant red cardinal who offers a streak of color in the drab winter garden, I’m all for it!

Cherokee Indians believe that the cardinal is the daughter (or son) of the sun. They have a charming legend about how this bird came to be so brilliantly colored. A long time ago cardinals were a dull brown color but one day the male cardinal found a magic pool of bright red. He jumped in, being careful not to get any around his mouth, and swam around until he was brilliantly colored. By the time he thought to call his mate, almost all the red was gone. There was only enough left for her to splash some on her chest, bill, wings and crest.

Cardinals tend to mate for life and will hang around the same general area, raising several broods during each breeding season. The males tend to be territorial and during mating / baby rearing season will aggressively fight off other birds.

Cardinals are avid feeders and will frequent a bird feeder as long as you supply seeds (especially sunflower seeds.)

These birds are so popular that they’ve been chosen as the mascot for numerous ball teams (think baseball in St. Louis) and were chosen by seven different states as the state bird (KY, IL, IN, NC, OH, VA and WV).

The bird was named for the cardinals in the church who wear robes of the same brilliant red. The word cardinal actually comes from the Latin word, cardo, meaning “hinge” because so many decisions in the church hinged on the decisions of the cardinals (the people, not the birds).

Superstition contends that if you see a cardinal flying toward the sky, you’ll have good luck but if he’s flying toward the ground, your luck will fail. This is one superstition that I don’t believe in at all, for to me, anytime you see a cardinal flying through the air – up or down!- you’ve had a piece of good luck.