Pyrrhuloxia

cross-posted from: lemmygrad.ml/post/4433901

The pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus) or desert cardinal is a medium-sized North American songbird found in the American southwest and northern Mexico. This distinctive species with a short, stout bill and red crest and wings, and closely resembles the northern cardinal and the vermilion cardinal, which are in the same genus. They’re closely related to Northern Cardinals, but they are a crisp gray and red, with a longer, elegant crest and a stubby, parrotlike yellow bill. Pyrrhuloxias are habitat specialists, so look for them in desert scrub of the Southwest. The Pyrrhuloxia is an opportunistic and omnivorous bird that forages on the ground and in the shrubbery, eating seeds, fruits, and large insects. It gleans seeds from thistle grass, doveweed, sandbur, panicum, sorghum, pigweed, yellow foxtail, joint grass, crabgrass, wiregrass, and spurge. The fruits in its diet include cactus fruits, nightshade fruits, and elderberries, though it eats much less fruit than the Northern Cardinal does. The Pyrrhuloxia also feeds on blooming saguaro cacti, likely eating the flowers’ nectar and pollen. It catches grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetles, stinkbugs, cicadas, weevils, and cotton cutworms. Predators of Pyrrhuloxias and their nests include feral and domestic cats, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls, and Greater Roadrunners. The Pyrrhuloxia’s clear, whistled songs are very similar to those of the Northern Cardinal (one familiar example being the repeated what-cheer song) though slightly softer and more reedy. Males have around a dozen songs, each 2–3 seconds long, which they sing frequently to establish and maintain territories. Two neighbors may sing in unison or alternately across a territory boundary. Females occasionally sing while defending nests. Pyrrhuloxias make a sharp, metallic cheek or chip note, similar to that of the Northern Cardinal but lower in pitch. Other calls include a chattering contact call, a series of soft chipping notes during foraging, and a tseep call used by begging fledglings. Pyrrhuloxias often call while in flight. Males make fluttering sounds with their wings while flying after females during courtship. Here is a link so you can listen to this bird too.