Cardinals are the most common bird in the Americas and people love them. Their calls are indicative of spring and their bright red plumage makes for fantastic viewing.
A very interesting thing about cardinals is their mating processes. Humans can get jealous just by observing how these songbirds mate. They are socially monogamous and care for their mate for life.
The product of these mating rituals – their babies – have very interesting characteristics. Before they reach adulthood, it is very easy to see a baby cardinal and not recognize it as a cardinal.
This article will show you how to recognize baby cardinals and juvenile cardinals right before they hit adulthood and develop their red plumage.
How Do You Identify a Baby Cardinal?
Despite having red feathers (male) and yellowish-fawn or fawn-colored feathers (female), baby cardinals are born naked.
This means they’re born featherless and will have to age to get their first feathers. Baby cardinals also have gray skin, which is covered up by feathers as they age.
Other things with which you can identify a baby cardinal if you run into a nest without a mother are:
Nest Location
You can surmise the species of a bird depending on where you find the nest. Read this article on interesting facts about the cardinal. Cardinals build their nests to look like a cup shape with materials like hair, twigs, grass, and leaves in dense foliage.
Examine the Eggs
If you find new hatchlings, look around for egg shells or unhatched eggs. If you see white to pale blue or greenish-white eggs that are speckled with brown, purple, or gray flecks and are smooth and glossy, the hatchlings you see are baby cardinals.
What Are Baby Cardinals Called?
Baby cardinals have no specific names at birth. They are simply called hatchlings. During their nesting phase, they become nestlings, and as they begin to exit the nest to explore the world around them, they become juveniles.
In colloquial settings (among friends and fellow bird enthusiasts), calling them “chicks” would suffice. The term “chick” is used to describe most baby birds, so it makes sense to call them that.
If you see a baby cardinal that looks abandoned, do not be in a hurry to save it because it is probably learning how to fly.
What Does a Baby Cardinal Eat?
Cardinals are omnivores – they eat plants and animals.
To be able to eat these when they grow older properly, baby cardinals are born with conical bills that are fairly wide. Look inside their mouths to see what color you notice.
If it is pink, that’s a baby cardinal. Also, cardinals have orange-red bills, but their babies have black ones. All of these point to the fact that what you’re looking at at that moment is a baby cardinal.
Baby cardinals are hungry little birds and start feeding shortly after hatching. They can be fed two, five, or even eight times per hour, keeping their parents busy throughout the day. As they get bigger, the feeding rate increases.
At this stage of their lives, they eat mostly insects and larvae for protein, which aids their growth. The parents break some of these insects down to aid digestion, but others are dropped directly into their mouths.
How Long Do Baby Cardinals Stay With Their Parents?
Cardinals take care of their young for the first three months of their lives.
During this time, baby cardinals are expected to grow into juveniles who can now fly solo and are expected to leave the family unit completely to become their own cardinals—foraging, looking for mates, and finding and defending a territory of their own.
In these three months, they undergo the following processes.
First Ten Days
These are the days of full dependency. It starts from the day they’re hatched until ten days later. At this time, the parents feed them and protect them from predators.
During this time, the babies are expected to have developed feathers to cover their naked gray skin and strong legs that can help them move around when it’s time to leave the nest ten days later.
10 – 56 Days
In this period, baby cardinals have started growing into juveniles and developing a crest, developing more color in their plumage and on their beaks. They are also expected to be learning how to fly in this period.
To teach them how to fly, their parents sometimes push them from their perches while they watch. They will continue to be fed by their parents in this period.
56 – 90 Days
In this period, the cardinal would stop returning as often to the nest and parental feeding begins to reduce. They fly more, start learning to forage and also start learning the different calls by mimicking their parents.
By the 90th day, they’re expected to have left the family unit to start their little cardinal lives.
Are Baby Cardinals Born Red?
Baby cardinals aren’t born red, as we’ve established. They’re born naked and gray without feathers. The feathers begin to develop in the first seven to ten days of their lives when they are fed constantly by their parents.
The feathers they develop during this time are gray as well, and the color begins to set in as they approach their 25th day.
The colors that set in first are the yellowish-tan or fawn of the female cardinal. Juveniles carry this color for some time before their adult colors begin to set in.
As the males continue to grow and develop, their plumage starts to redden – first in subdued pinkish tones until it turns a brilliant red. The females begin to develop red streaks where necessary.
Final Thoughts
Cardinals are not rare birds to find in America. As the state bird of seven states in the US, it means they can be seen whenever you want to see them.
You, too, can witness the lifecycle of a baby cardinal. Start by making a welcoming environment for them in your yard by planting different shrubs, providing water sources and installing a bird feeder that is stocked with the seeds and fruits they enjoy.
Doing this will encourage them to nest in your yard and you can watch them lay eggs that hatch into baby cardinals that you can observe!
