Northern Cardinals Are MIA

[Ed Cordes]

I live in Corning, NY which is just north of the PA border in the Finger Lakes Region of Central NY. We have noticed that for the past month or so there have been no Northern Cardinals, male of female, at our feeders. This is very unusual as we typically have a few Cardinal families all year round. This summer we had about 4 families with us. We are worried that there is a problem with the Northern Cardinal population or perhaps is it a situation of the birds taking an early winter vacation for a short while?

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Ed... have not heard of any problems with N Cardinals... give it a few days or a couple of weeks... they may be busy finishing up all the abundance of wild seeds out there right now and sorting out territories (although they are not especially territorial in the winter.) I had the the same thing with AGF's ... Never had them disappear completely... but they did also disappear for several weeks! Are now returning nicely. I seldom get Cardinals here in the woods, but actually had a pair show up for just a brief time yesterday.

[Ed Cordes]

Thanks for the reply. We hope a few days/weeks will solve the problem.