Northern cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758)
The northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a bird in the songbirds and other perching birds subgroup, placed in the family Cardinalidae of the order Passeriformes. It is a small bird with an adult body mass of 42.6 g and a body length of 21.6 cm.
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Quick facts about the northern cardinal
Its diet category is omnivore, its trophic level is listed as herbivore, and it is a sedentary, perching bird of shrubland habitat. It lays 3.12 eggs per clutch with 2.5 clutches per year, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 41.8 g – 44.1 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- 21.6 cmsrc for Length
- Lifespan
- 15.8 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Omnivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 28.5 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- shrublandsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 12.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3.12src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 12 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 2.5src for Litters or clutches a year
- Reproduction
- Eggssrc for Reproduction
- Lifestyle
- Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Sedentarysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the northern cardinal?
Photos of the northern cardinal
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the northern cardinal live?
Not recorded
What is the northern cardinal?
The northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), 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.
The northern cardinal is a mid-sized perching songbird with a body length of 21–23 cm (8.3–9.1 in) and a crest on the top of its head. The species expresses sexual dimorphism: Females are a reddish olive color, and have a gray mask around the beak, while males are a vibrant red color, and have a black mask on the face, as well as a larger crest. Juvenile cardinals do not have the distinctive red-orange beak seen in adult birds until they are almost fully mature. On hatching, their beaks are grayish-black and they do not become the typical orange-red color until they acquire their final adult plumage in the fall.
The northern cardinal is mainly granivorous but also feeds on insects and fruit. The male behaves territorially, marking out his territory with song. During courtship, the male feeds seed to the female beak-to-beak. The northern cardinal's clutch typically contains three to four eggs, with two to four clutches produced each year. It was once prized as a pet, but its sale was banned in the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
From the Wikipedia article “Northern cardinal” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Northern_cardinal&oldid=1382280308), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the northern cardinal sound like?
Is the northern cardinal endangered?
The northern cardinal is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the northern cardinal classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyCardinalidae
- genusCardinalis
- SpeciesCardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Cardinalis virginianus, Loxia cardinalis, Richmondena cardinalis
Other names and names in other languages (78)
- CardinalEnglish
- Cardinal grosbeakEnglish
- Cardinal RedbirdEnglish
- Cardinal-birdEnglish
- Common cardinalEnglish
- Crested RedbirdEnglish
- Red cardinalEnglish
- Red-birdEnglish
- RedbirdEnglish
- Top-knot RedbirdEnglish
- Virginia cardinalEnglish
- Virginia nightingaleEnglish
- Virginia RedbirdEnglish
- Virginian nightingaleEnglish
- RooikardinaalAfrikaans
- TiskòmmaAlabama
- كاردينال شماليArabic
- bei'ii'eihiiArapaho
- Северен кардиналBulgarian
- নর্দার্ন কার্ডিনালBangla
- cardenal vermellCatalan
- ᏙᏧᏩCherokee
- cardinal cyffredinWelsh
- Rød KardinalDanish
- RotkardinalGerman
- Roter KardinalGerman
- Virginische NachtigallGerman
- Κόκκινος ΚαρδινάλιοςGreek
- ruĝa kardinaloEsperanto
- Cardenal rojoSpanish
- Cardenal norteñoSpanish
- kardinalEstonian
- HegagorriBasque
- کاردینال شمالیPersian
- punakardinaaliFinnish
- cardinal rougeFrench
- Cairdinéal tuaisceartachIrish
- Cardinaal jiargScottish Gaelic
- קרדינל צפוניHebrew
- kardinálispintyHungarian
- vörös kardinálispintyHungarian
- cardinale rossoItalian
- Cardinale settentrionaleItalian
- ショウジョウコウカンチョウJapanese
- კარდინალიGeorgian
- Қызыл кардиналKazakh
- 홍관조Korean
- paprastasis kardinolasLithuanian
- sarkanais kardinālsLatvian
- istaqo'kejMi'kmaw
- നോർത്തേൺ കാർഡിനൽMalayalam
- TsinekwenhtáhrhaMohawk
- FuscateMuscogee
- Fus-cahtvMuscogee
- Fus-cateMuscogee
- မြောက်ပိုင်းကာဒင်နယ်ငှက်Burmese
- Rode KardinaalDutch
- Misko-bineshiinhOjibwa
- kardynałPolish
- kardynał szkarłatnyPolish
- CardealPortuguese
- Cardeal-do-nortePortuguese
- cardeal-nortenhoPortuguese
- cardeal-roxoPortuguese
- Красный кардиналRussian
- kardinál červenýSlovak
- Severni kardinalSlovenian
- црвени кардиналSerbian
- Crveni kardinalSerbian
- röd kardinalSwedish
- தென் கர்தினால்Tamil
- Kırmızı KardinalTurkish
- Bayağı kardinal kuşuTurkish
- кардинал червонийUkrainian
- Кардинал північнийUkrainian
- 主紅雀Chinese
- 主红雀Chinese
- 北美紅雀Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the northern cardinal
Other species in the same genus Cardinalis.
Vermilion cardinal
Cardinalis phoeniceus
Pyrrhuloxia
Cardinalis sinuatus
CompareNorthern cardinal vs Vermilion cardinalNorthern cardinal vs Pyrrhuloxia
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the northern cardinal?
The northern cardinal is a bird in the songbirds and other perching birds subgroup, in the family Cardinalidae of the order Passeriformes.
How big is the northern cardinal?
The northern cardinal weighs 42.64 g, with values from 41.83 g to 44.08 g reported, and has a body length of 21.59 cm.
What does the northern cardinal eat?
The northern cardinal is classed as an omnivore, and its trophic level is listed as herbivore.
Is the northern cardinal endangered?
No. The northern cardinal is listed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does the northern cardinal live?
The northern cardinal has a lifespan of 15.8 years in our sources, with up to 28.5 years reported.
How many eggs does the northern cardinal lay?
The northern cardinal lays 3.12 eggs per clutch, with 2.5 clutches per year and an incubation period of 12.5 days.
What habitat does the northern cardinal use?
The northern cardinal uses shrubland habitat and is a sedentary, perching bird.
Who named the northern cardinal?
The northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, was named by (Linnaeus, 1758).
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/northern-cardinal
“Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/northern-cardinal.
@misc{northern_cardinal_2026,
title = {Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/northern-cardinal},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}