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tribune march 2 1988 cll cardinals herald springs coming by marion strebig federation of ontario naturalists despite piles of snow spring is definitely on its way for the past few weeks the male cardinal has been flying furiously at his reflected image in the garage window and the other day he carried out an attack on the side mirror of the car he flutters against the win dow pecking at the glass and uttering vehement chipping sounds sometimes he does this over and over again with the female watching from a nearby forsythia suddenly he will fly off with the female apparently satisfied he has intimidated his rival in the glass the lengthening days have stirred up his hormones so he is pugnaciously defending his territory besides his acrobatic per formance at the window he has also started his spring songs his clear bright whistle rings out from the top of a tree or the television aerial complicated arias gradually the arias become more and more complicated often ending in emphatic stac cato the female may also sing but with nesting her vocaliza tion except for the warning chip ceases the male will con tinue his ebullient outpourings from some high vantage point all summer in late february though the clear whistle of the cardinal is as welcome a sign of spring as the liquid murmur of melting snow once rare in southern ontar io the cardinal is now firmly en trenched along lake erie and lake ontario with evidence that each year it is expanding its range northward now it is a confirmed breeder as far north as georgian bay and ottawa since the cardinal prefers to nest in bushy tangle or in the depths of conifers suburban gardens and city parks suit it it has also benefitted by the proliferation of bird feeders that large beak cracks sunflow er husks better than any nut cracker the husks dropping away neatly on either side of the bill although wild fruit and seeds form the major part of its diet in the winter both parents and young consume large quan tities of insects during the summer when the cardinal becomes the father of a brood he takes his family responsibilities seriously sometimes he will continue to feed the young even when they are fledged and he has a second brood constant sounds at first the fledged young car dinals of both sexes resemble the female except their crests look slightly askew by early fall the young males will be in scarlet plumage a family of cardinals bathing on a hot day in summer is an entertaining spectacle constant chirping sounds from the bushes beside the bath alert the observer to their pre sence then a young cardinal lights boldly on the edge of the birdbath still chirping non stop when it finally hops into the water its first splash is tenta tive but it soon settles to the voluptuous enjoyment of splashing eventually the whole family will bathe except for father who makes anxious little sounds until all are safely back in the bushes in ontario cardinals are quite sedentary and it is unlike ly these fledglings will 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