Baby Cardinals

May 6th, 2006

As part gardening I (and my wife joins me in this) try to attract birds to our backyard. My wife likes birds, and I do as well but mostly I appreciate the good they can do for a garden by eating insects and whatnot.

This Spring a family of cardinals made a nest in one of our spruces and they’ve already had their first babies. In the photo (click to enlarge) you’ll notice that there are two hatchlings and two still whole eggs. I don’t know how old these babies are, but considering their siblings are still in eggs I’m guessing a day or two at the most, they might have been born this morning for all I know. Supposedly they leave the nest in as little as 10 days after hatching so these birds have some major growing to do.

Cardinal females do the nesting, but once the young are born it is usually the male that takes over feeding while the female makes a new nest. In this way they can have multiple broods per year. They also do not migrate and so I hope we’ll eventually have more cardinals living in our backyard as this family multiplies.

For more on cardinals try this link.

I also want to apologize for not posting much the last few weeks. There are two reasons for this, the first is that I’ve been busy gardening. However in this time I’ve gathered a bunch of materials and pictures for later posts. The other reason is that I’m working on a large expansion for this site. I realized that many of the things I wish to write about do not fit well with the blog format and so I am going to expand. I hope to have that done by the end of May and a deluge of new content for you.

For now though I’m taking my wife on a well deserved week long vacation. Adios.

Posted in: Critters & Creatures »

30 Responses to “Baby Cardinals”

Melissa Says:
May 20th, 2006 at 9:06 am
That’s a neat photo of the nest. I have a lot a teenage cardinals around this year but I have no idea where the nests were.
Chris Douglas Says:
May 30th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
We had a cardinal build a nest in a sprub right next to the private entrance to our office. The 2 babies hatched about 10 days ago. First one baby was gone and there was one left. That bird was in the nest this morning and is gone this afternoon. No sign of the mother. There is however an egg left in the nest. I was just curious how long the babies stay in the nest. I feel better after reading your web site. They probably flew away and are fine. Thanks for the information.
Carolyn Sain Says:
June 7th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Was excited to see Cardinals built a nest in a bush beside my patio. First eggs, now today, babies, daddy is feeding. So exciting to watch this. Never seen nesting of cardinals before, so learning how they work. I hope they survive.
paula Says:
April 26th, 2007 at 7:16 am
I have watched Mom and Dad Cardinals take care of babies for the past week in the nest in a tree outside my bathroom window. I was worried sick about them last night in a rainstorm. I thought the momma was in the nest with them. This morning everyone is gone. I was so sad as I had watched them non-stop for the past week! I hope they are ok and have just left the nest.
erika Says:
May 17th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I too have a Cardinals nest in my Honeysuckle bush which we can see right out of my family room window. It has been so exciting watching the mommy and daddy come to feed these little tiny mouths that are waiting for them.But, like you, we had a pretty bad storm yesterday and I also worried about these little birds. This morning, when I went to check on them it seemed like the nest was empty. After doing a little research on them, I found out that they fly the coop after about 10 days. I’m bummed, I’ve grown attached to these little critters. I’m hoping to still see them come back to the nest. There is another nest they built as well. I understand they will hatch again.
linda Morefield Says:
May 20th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
so happy to find this site. I’ve been watching a nest of cardinals–2babies–and this morning, found one baby on ground, maybe a foot or two from nest–dead! Not too much later, the other baby was out of the nest on a branch of the vine that supports the nest. It remained stationary a long time–then, when I wasn’t looking it was gone. I later looked into the nest and there was one unhatched egg. found this web site because I was searching to try to understand what I was seeing–
Kim Says:
June 22nd, 2007 at 8:03 am
We have been watching a cardinal nest from one of our windows also. She started out with 3 eggs, and all 3 hatched….a couple of days later, 2 of the babies were gone. Not sure what happened to them, and we never found them on the ground. We watched her take care of the ramaining one, and he left the nest yesterday…I sat on my front porch watching him hop from branch to branch and watched mom and dad feed him and coax him to fly. The were actually “talking” to one another. It was so cute. Before I went inside last night, I checked on him one last time and he was on the branch of my lilac bush sound asleep. He never knew I was standing there watching him. Through the night, we got some pretty heavy rain and a terrible storm (windy) came blowing through. My boyfriend got up this morning and found him on the ground under the lilac bush dead. We were so upset to find him this way. I guess the storm was just too much for his little body. Mama continues to fly down to the little bird like she is checking on him…..I don’t think she realizes that he is gone. I feel so sorry for her and daddy because the actually lost all 3.
Alison Says:
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:16 am
We found a cardinal nesting in the umbrella covering the table on our back deck. The is located about four feet from our back door! Three eggs were laid and only one has hatched. The baby seems to be fine and mama is feeding him/her fastidiously. However, the two eggs remaining are unhatched. It has now been five days since the first hatchling appeared. Is there any hope for the unhatched eggs?
Claudia Says:
July 17th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
I found a baby cardinal on the middle of a busy intersection, too small to fly and no trees around. It has been 2 weeks now and She (I think) is doing GREAT!. I use Purina puppy chow, soak it for 30 min to an hour and then squeeze most of the liquid as it can drown the baby. I have been feeding it also some wild berries in the mixture and adding some finely chopped sunflower seeds ans whatever fly I happen to kill that enters my home. The bird is Doing GREAT!, I also have a baby Robin that I found on July 5th and watched the ENTIRE DAY for the parents to come and feed it. AT night I scopped the little one up and it also is doing great with the same feedings and some WORMS that WALMART sells in the sporting section for fishing. I just wanted to share my success. I usually foster Crows and european starlings, so these 2 little ones are a TREAT. The baby robing is low flying and sleeps outdoors in a safe place so he can be a free bird and live a normal birdie life, but the baby cardinal is MUCH to hoppy and will not follow me around like the Robin. The Cardinal is starting to PRACTICE fly and boy is it EVERYWHERE. I keep it in a nice large Flight cage for the moment and will be keeping it outdoors as she gets older/bigger so she too can live a long life and find a mate. NEVER give a baby bird water if it was no feathers, a drop will DROWN the baby bird!

Use Dry cat/Dog food or Exact baby fird formula to feed orphanded baby birds. Feed every 30 min.
Administrator Says:
July 18th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Why would you foster a european starling? They are an invasive species that threatens native songbird populations. They should be shot on sight.
Cyndy Says:
July 18th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
A cardinal made a nest in a tree by our front door. We were on vacation for almost two weeks in June and I suspect that’s when the nest was made. I tried not to use the front door but, of course, we needed to mow the lawn, we got visitors, etc. So the mother bird was constantly abandoning her nest. There were three eggs initially but it seems only one of them hatched. This morning when I looked (I can see the nest from a window inside the house), I could see the baby bird was quite still and there were flies buzzing around. Sure enough, the poor thing was dead. However, the mother bird keeps coming back to the nest. Why would the mother keep coming
back to it? As far as I know, no other eggs have hatched.
Rhonda Says:
July 30th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
We’ve been watching mom and dad cardinals feeding 3 baby cardinals for the past week and we were wondering how long the babies stay in the nest. The nest is in a potted potato plant about 4 feet tall very near our back patio. When the parents go into the nest to feed the babies we hear the babies chirping loudly. We’ve also seen the dad cardinal chase off another male cardinal in our backyard.
Traci Says:
August 24th, 2007 at 8:56 am
I have been caring for a baby Cardinal now for about 6 days. When I found the bird it had no feathers and had fallen from the nest and was about to be eaten by a dog. I fed it soaked dog food and cooked egg whites. I did give it drops of water and I guess I am lucky I did not drown the poor thing after reading some of these comments. However, it is doing great! It is flying around the house and I am wanting to help it learn to eat on its own. I have it in a bird cage and I take it outside several times a day so that it will begin to adjust to the sights and sounds. What should my next step be to ensure that this little sweetheart will be able to feed itself? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. It chirps a bunch and I am hoping this is a good thing.
Laura Says:
August 30th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I found a baby bird in my garage this morning and chased him out. Then I realized it was a baby cardinal as I found the nest in a maple tree not far from the garage.

I debated if I should try and put the bird back in the nest as it could only fly a little bit and it seemed there was no way it could fly all the way back up into the tree.

Well, I waited for 2 hours or so, and found the baby bird hiding in the bushes chirping away. I got a shoe box, put him in it and then wedged the shoe box into some branches inot the tree near the nest.

I’m hoping the baby makes its way back into the nest. I hope I did the right thing as I didn’t want any animals on the ground to get him. Also hope the mother won’t abandon him but reading articles today that is just a myth.
Gary Says:
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
A pair of cardinals built a next in a bush in our back yard. Yesterday there were four or five chicks in it. They were each 3-4 days old. Today, they are all gone! No sign of a disturbance, like a predator…. Could mommy have moved them??

We are feeling sad, and a bit guilty, as neither we nor our neighbors knew they were there, and the last few days the kids have been playing vigorously in the area, with balls flying around, etc.
Anna Says:
May 21st, 2008 at 5:34 pm
We’d been watching a nest of baby cardinals in the bush in front of the house, for a week. Two days ago I saw they were gone. But I could hear them when I came home from work. Looking out the back window I saw a little puff in the garden. Went down for a close look, and a poor tiny baby bird was stuck in the netting we put up around the garden. All twisted around its little bird foot. I cut him free with scissors, but he still had black fence strings around its foot. I cut as much as I could off and he hobbled away, not too damaged. Then I saw the second baby bird stuck in the net. I cut him out too. The mother and father cardinals were barking at me to get away. I removed the garden netting and watched out the window for a couple of hours. They were hopping or just standing. They seemed okay. I wish I had time to watch for them. I’ve seen the parents out the window, but not the little ones.
Bill Says:
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:57 am
My family recently watched a cardinal make a nest right outside our kitchen window in a rose bush. Right away, we had two eggs. She sat on them for around two weeks and out popped one little chick. The second egg never hatched. The mother and father cardinal fed the little chick constantly as it quickly grew. After 10 days, the bird was fiesty, trying to climb out of the nest. Yesterday afternoon we noticed the bird was perched on the side of the nest, whistling quite a lot. No sign of the mother or father… The bird stayed there into the night, by itself. We’d shine a flashlight through the window and it would open its mouth, but couldn’t make noise anymore. We were saddened and didn’t know what to do. We thought the bird was in distress. After reading some posts, we learned that the parents begin to leave the young birds around this stage in their lives, yet come back occasionally to make sure they are fed and try to nudge them on their way to their first “flight.” So we let the bird rest by himself… low and behold, the bird was dead in the morning. It turns out that his foot was stuck in the nest. Could the parents have thought they had a diseased or “bad” offspring, and left it? Very sad indeed. We are all heartbroken! At least we have wonderul pictures and videos for our memories…
Becky Tigges Says:
May 25th, 2008 at 5:19 am
I’m so glad we found this blog. We found a baby cardinal last night around our fish pond. At first we tried to bring it in and care for it, but then I read that you should put it back and the parents would care for it. So we put him back outside in the backyard and watched the parents come looking for him and start to care for him. After dark we found him curled up next the fence sleeping. My hubby wanted to bring him in, but I said not to, because I figured that the parents would still take care of him through the night. Plus, I thought our air conditioning would make him too cold and we didn’t have any way of making a make-shift incubator. Next morning, everything was soaking wet, because apparently it rained. We went looking for him and he’s gone. I hope he is okay, but I am very sad and angry at myself for not bringing him in.
Doreen Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
For two weeks I watched and tried my best to protect one baby cardinal, while the Mother and Father met it’s needs. To prevent a neighbors cat from destroying the baby, like it had done to another family, last year at this time, I scattered branches with thorns, sticking out, around the bush. Each and everytime I went near this bush the Mother and Father birds would chirp as if in distress. I never touched the nest, but today, after I hadn’t notice much ativity in the bush for a day, I decided to investigate. The poor little bird was dead. I feel it may have been my fault that the parents abandoned it. For what other reason would a cardinal abandon a seemingly healthy baby bird?
Administrator Says:
May 27th, 2008 at 5:13 am
If the parents found your makeshift nest, I’d say your job is done, leave them be.
Kathy Says:
May 30th, 2008 at 11:38 am
We have been watching a cardinal nest for quite some time in the shrub surrounding our deck. Abotu a week ago all three eggs hatched, and the babies were resting just great last night. This morning the nest is completely empty! No babies, no parents around. Do mother’s move the babies or did something eat them?
Gale Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Please tell me I did the right thing! We have a family of cardinals that made a nest in our grapefruit tree. Daddy has been watching over the nest and this morning my chocolate lab Maci found one of the babies on the ground. She watched over it till my husband came out and put the little critter back in the nest. We researched it online and it said that since its eyes were not open and no feathers we should put it back in the nest. I hope I did the right thing!
TMW Says:
June 8th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
We’ve had a pair of cardinals feeding at our backyard feeder for weeks now. (They like both safflower and sunflower seeds.) Sometimes they cheep outside the door until I put out new seed in the evening, and then they start in eating, often before I get inside.

Late this afternoon, I heard vigorous cheeping from the front yard. When I peered through the trees and bushes (from a distance) I first say the female and then a fledgling that she fed. The fledgling blends very well into oak bark. I stood still and watched for a while, and the mother backed away from the young one and sat still. The young one stayed quiet, too. So I put the seeds out in their usual place (and a few on the roof near where I saw them), and I’ve come inside. It’s quiet out there now. I hope all goes well.
kathy Says:
June 20th, 2008 at 6:33 am
We have also had the opportunity to watch the process of baby birds. We moved to Florida last June. In May they started building a nest on our fronch porch, in a half rounded pot handing from our shutters with petunias planted in it. This area is very well protected. We debated on letting this occur because of the front door, but decided we would use the garage door and that it might be fun to watch. We left for a week and when returned mom was sitting on the nest. We had some yard work to do, so mom would fly off when we walked in front of the front porch. She did get use to us and stayed on her nest which I was greatful for. Five, yes five babies were hatched. I couldn’t believe it. It has been fun to watch them grow. Eventually they were over flowing their tiny nest. I managed to keep my flowers alive however very carefully watering them when mom was gone. Two of the bird were gone, then we had three left for a couple of days. Then two were left for a day. One flew off when I was standing on the front porch. The next morning the last one was gone. Mom and Dad would sit out on the light post, and it seemed like they would be chirping them on to fly out of the nest. This morning as I was reading the stories posted on this website 3 babies appear on the porch. Chirping around and checking out the potted gardenia. I miss checking on them every morning. Isn’t nature just grand.
Justin Says:
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
My neighbor had 2 baby cardinals in his front yard he kept falling out of the tree so i got Gloves and put him back its been 1 week and i found him dead i was very sad and i burried him on the front yard. this just happned today i think he was 1 month old.The 2nd one dissapered and i know there are no more babys in there so i keep the nest there and think there still there.
Melissa Says:
June 24th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I’m glad I found this blog. Last year we had a cardinal nest in a fig tree out on our deck. We watched the process through the bedroom window. 5 eggs, 5 babies, and we watched all 5 leave the nest as their parents led them into some brush by the woods by our house. A few weeks ago the fig tree was occupied again - by probably the same cardinals. We had even moved it, but they managed to find the exact one on our deck and built a nest. This time 2 eggs. She was on the nest last night, but this morning she’s gone and so are the eggs. No sign of the eggs at all, but the parents are still around and look to be building another nest in a bush nearby.
Dianna Says:
June 24th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
This is so cool, I love cardinals, my mother used to have them around her house, but since her passing I have missed seeing them. This summer a cardinal couple have made residence at our home, I have named them Big Red and Lilly. Two weeks ago they hatched 4 beautiful little cardinals. Hearing them sing and watching them on the feeder is such a blessing. Yesterday I found them out of there nest and out on a limb ready to fly. They are gone today but I got some great pics and wonderful memories.
sandy Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
My son saw a cardinal “fall out of the sky”. It is now in a box with an abandoned nest. The baby seems to be content. It has an appetite and hopefully it won’t die. Does anyone know of a wildlife preserve in Montgomery County, Maryland?
Tami Says:
July 19th, 2008 at 11:23 am
We have a cardinal nest in front of our kitchen window in our lilac bushes. 2-3 babies were hatched a couple of days ago. Mommy & daddy cardinal have been bringing them bugs and worms, and taking good care of their brood. Yesterday we noticed a strange bird lingering around the nest, and we have been trying to scare him away from them when we see it. Today mom’s been sitting on the nest all day, so she knows the danger involved, I think. I am so afraid the “predator” will kill the babies, so I LIVE in front of the window watching so I can help protect them, by my movements..the mom and dad are used to us coming in and out of the door, but the preditor flys off. I hope they stay safe. I feel like they are my “grandbabies”!
Ginny Says:
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:04 am
I’ve been watching a lot of young juvenile Cardinals the past month. They are fun. They are on their own now but I used to watch the parents with them and feeding them. I have loads of photos and short video clips of them . This is the first time I’ve seen any young ones. We have only had one pair around here for the past few years. The parents are never too far away, especially the father. I enjoyed reading your blog and all the comments. Thank you.

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Baby Cardinals

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