Cardinals, Cardinalis, Cardinalids

After a stretch in which both desert cardinals seemed to avoid our yard, I’m happy that both Northern Cardinals and Pyrrhuloxias have returned to feast on the bounty we scatter each morning beneath the magical hackberries.

Distinctive as these two species are in plumage–from each other and from eastern Northern Cardinals–their voices can still confuse me. I’m getting better at it, but even so I have to check sometimes when I hear a bright chip coming from the foliage; I’ve got a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right just by guessing, but on a bad day my performance can fall below even the modest level predicted by mere chance.

There are worse things to have to do than sit in the yard on these warm spring days and practice Cardinalis calls, though!