Blogtober Day Two
These are beautiful birds, and like the Blue Jay, one I’ve drawn before from the Cornell webcam. We don’t have any really red birds here in the UK, so this was lovely to paint. Getting the correct scarlet took a lot of mixing but I think I got there eventually.
These cheery birds are one of the most well-known, and enjoy the accolade of being the state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. They visit feeders, which adds to their conspicuousness in gardens and parks, and nest in thick scrub, hopping between the branches looking for insects and seeds. Northern Cardinals are sedentary birds which retain their bright plumage all year round, adding to their familiarity and charm. Even though the females have more subdued colouring, they sport a bright orange-red beak like the males, as well as bright red tips to their crest, tail and wings.
About the same size as our Starlings, cardinals belong to a group of birds which includes grosbeaks, none of which we have here in Britain, although occasionally a vagrant species ends up here.
Here is my illustration, painted in gouache on Fabriano Artistico paper:
