Hobbies And Interests
Researching Cardinals
Engage your children in the lives of cardinals by researching them at a library or on the Internet. Let them discover the habits of the birds and the difference between males and females. Some websites allow you to hear the birdsong of cardinals. Their call of the cardinal is often described as sounding like "tsip." The whistle sounds like "cheer, cheer."
Color a Cardinal
Download two black and white drawings from online and allow the children to color it with crayons, markers or paints. One can be of the red male while another can be the brownish red female. Males have a black face and throat. Their bill is also bright red. The female's dull coloring protects her from predators while guarding the nest.
Let Binoculars See the Bird World.
Let your child become a cardinal watcher through binoculars, which are available in small sizes for younger children. They can look from inside the house, a walk around the neighborhood or a visit to a park or bird preserve. Open woodlands are a cardinal's preferred environment so they can be found mostly in eastern North America.
Feed a cardinal
Cardinals are seed eaters. Fill a bird feeder with small seeds and hang from a tree branch. As a special treat mix peanut butter and birdseed together. Then apply it to a pine cone and attach to a tree. Cardinals particularly need humans to feed them during the winter when foraging for food is difficult. The Audubon Society has found that giving wild birds winter food can help them avoid natural predators.
Start a Life List
Encourage a child's lifelong interest in birds by starting a life list for them. Buy them a journal where they can document their viewings of cardinals and other birds. They can write where and when they saw the bird in addition to detailing the weather, time of day and any unusual circumstances such as number of baby cardinals in a nest.