The Northern Cardinal is one of the most brilliantly coloured of our North American birds.  Originally a more southerly species, it has extended its range north over the past two centuries and is now a common sight in parts of southeastern Canada.  As a non-migratory songbird, this expansion is believed to be influenced by both climate changes and the appearance of food-providing human populations (two factors which have helped the birds survive our harsh winters).

I found this hapless bird by the roadside on Wednesday evening, his vibrant feathers drawing my attention even in the darkening twilight as I drove past.  Specimens such as this give one an opportunity to examine their subject up close, revealing aspects of anatomy and plumage that aren’t obvious in the field.  Check out the lenth of the tibia (or “drumstick”) in the above drawing.  This is actually the bird’s shin (the knee and thigh are well hidden by feathers), and typically only the lower part is visible from beneath the wings of a perched bird.  I’ve seen many a bird painting that fails to include this small but important bit of anatomy (and it’s this kind of lack of familiarity found in a lot of the wildlife art produced for mass consumption that irritates me to no end).

The bill of a cardinal is quite large for its size, and it’s as powerful as it looks (as many a bird bander will lament).  Unlike jays or chickadees, who typically resort to hammering seeds in order to crack them, cardinals shell their meal using the strength of their jaw muscles alone.  The feet were another part that I spent a lot of time examining, as I always find them to be the most difficult part of a bird to get right.

Cardinal Study. Watercolour and coloured pencil.

Red is a truely awful colour to work with — it’s difficult to be subtle with such a hue.  Hopefully I’ve managed to capture some of the true vibrancy of the bird, as well as create a useful piece of reference material for future work.