Male and Female Cardinal
After 18 years in the Northwest, it was a delight to come to Tucson to hear and see the Northern Cardinal. If you were to draw a north-south line starting on the eastern borders of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico you would have the dividing line of the range of the Cardinal -- with one exception. The Cardinal is also found in Southern Arizona. Go Figure! Skips right over New Mexico without a wink. We have breeding pairs of Cardinals here. It is always a delight when the male sits in the very top of our large, mostly dead, mesquite tree and sings his heart out. Once the chicks leave their nest they fly to a branch just above our feeder. The mother then takes a seed from the feeder and gives it to the chick. As I say, it is a delight to watch.
Male Pyrrhuloxia
Female Pyrrhuloxia
Pyrrhuloxias are in the Cardinal family but only found in the extreme Southern parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Southwest Texas. The female Pyrrhuloxia and female Cardinal are very similar in color and difficult to distinguish. The Pyrrhuloxia has a yellow bill while the Cardinal has an orange bill. Also the area around the eye (more noticeable) in the male, is red on the Pyrrhuloxia and black on the Cardinal.
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