Female Northern Cardinal T-Shirt

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So, how do you identify a female Northern cardinal? It’s easy. Structurally, they’re identical to their male counterparts, except that where males are bright red, females are mostly brown. If you see a bird that looks like a brown cardinal, and is hopping around the underbrush like a cardinal—except it's brown—and maybe hanging out with a bright red cardinal, you’re looking at a female cardinal.

To erase any doubt and ensure that you don’t mistake a female cardinal for some other brownish bird you may find in the backyard—a big sparrow or a mockingbird, say—here’s a foolproof tip: Look at the bill. Both sexes of Northern Cardinal have bright orange (not yellow!) bills, but while the bill blends in with the bright males, it stands out like Rudolph’s nose on the female. When you see that bright orange honker on a brown bird, you know instantly what you’ve got.

Linda is an author (L.C.Bennett Stern), blogger and backyard birder, who loves living in a small town on the East Coast of the United States. She prefers taking photos of subjects in nature and architecture ... with a smile, she adds: people are so unruly. Please feel free to manipulate my photos (to the extent possible) to suit the items you wish to order, including changing the background color on many items. (Note: Some images cannot be resized to appear correctly on Mugs, even with resizing...check carefully before ordering, to avoid disappointment.) I welcome you to stop by frequently to see updates to my portfolio.