BRN 9-2 (uncompressed) - Flipbook - Page 11
Northern Cardinal
Nesting - Hillsboro
The Þrst issue of this journal included
an article on the range expansion of
the Northern Cardinal into our area.
In the second issue of the following
year we discussed the research into
the geographic Þlters in the evolution
of new species and subspecies speciÞcally as they apply to the
Northern Cardinal. Since that time we
have discussed the natural history of
the Northern Cardinal in snippets of
narrative in various articles, but
although we knew Northern Cardinals
were nesting in the area we had failed
to document these events.
In June and July of 2025, Northern
Cardinals developed several nests in
Hillsboro. Observations were
conclusive and non-intrusive,
meaning we did not even try to
photograph the nests.
Northern Cardinal nests are typically
within the foliage of shrubs or small
trees, so it is not easy to gather
images of them without disturbing
the birds.
Unfortunately one of the nests failed,
but that provided us with the
opportunity to do some documentation after we were sure the breeding
pair had moved on to another effort.
If you were to Þnd this nest, without
any prior knowledge of what it was,
you might assume that it was one
made by a Western Tanager. Everything about it, including the color of
the eggs (normal brood size for
Northern Cardinal is 3-4 eggs) would
lead you to that conclusion. But we
had that prior knowledge: a Northern
Cardinal nest it was.
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