Well, actually in our neck of the woods, they hang around all winter, so they are not a sign of spring (unfortunately). They are our state bird, I guess I see why now.
Yes, there are females - in fact, they seem to hang out in pairs. When the males are in the tree, the females are up eating in the feeders and vice versa.
We usually always have 2 or 3 nesting pair in our yard (in fact, somewhere in my digital attic I have a picture of one on her nest in a lilac bush) - I've read that they mate for life and don't leave their chosen area throughout their lives....not sure where I read that, on a web site devoted to birding I think...
Anyway, I don't know why there are so many this year. This morning (when the picture was taken) I counted 11 males and 11 females...(couldn't get them all int he picture). There has been more snow than usual this winter, so perhaps the food source has been less plentiful and they are just going wherever they can find it. Whenever there is a lot of snow or ice, we try to keep the feeders full.
As to food - the cardinals LOVE sunflower seeds! They eat them one at a time, breaking away the hulls and eating the insides - looks like one of those peanut shell bars on our back deck...nothing but sunflower hulls! We went to Lowes and bought this enormous bag of just sunflower seeds.....my father used to grow big sunflowers and place the heads around for birds to eat in the winter.
They also like field corn. We have an ear of corn mounted on a post that sits upright so they can perch on it and pick off the kernels.
We have also had two different kinds of woodpeckers, blue jays, red finches, bluebirds and others I haven't figured out yet....it's just been amazing this winter.
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