Northern Cardinal Print - Courtship Feeding

He leans forward. She waits, beak parted. He passes her a seed.

This is the moment the plate captures: a male Cardinalis cardinalis in full scarlet delivering food to the female on a bare winter branch. Courtship feeding in cardinals is a real behaviour that strengthens the pair bond in the weeks before nesting begins. The male feeds the female while she incubates the eggs, then again as she starts the next nest. The gesture here is not symbolic. It is the beginning of a cycle that can produce two to four broods in a single season.

The plate is built around the contrast the Audubon tradition handles best. That vivid cardinal red against the warm brown of the branch and the cream of the paper. The black mask sharply defined at the bill. The female’s warm fawn-buff answering the male’s scarlet at the edges of the frame. The seed at the centre.

Cardinalis cardinalis is a year-round resident across the eastern and central United States and does not migrate. The same pair that visits your January feeder is the pair that bred in your hedgerow in April. Cardinals can live up to 15 years, according to the banding record, and many pairs stay together across multiple seasons.

Population: estimated at 130 million and increasing.

Drawn in the tradition of Audubon, where a seed passed between two birds earns a full plate.

Printed on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308gsm.