Once elusive, cardinals appearing more frequently in Manitoba

A northern cardinal at a feeder in East Kildonan in February 2022. (Rudolf Koes)

A songbird with a vibrant red colour, a black mask, and a crest on top of its head is showing up at more Manitoba bird feeders.

The Northern cardinal, a popular symbol in bird books, nature drawings, and even several sports teams, has been elusive in Manitoba. Now, the distinctive bird is being spotted more frequently in recent years by amateur and professional birdwatchers alike.

Sherrie Versluis, owner of Preferred Perch, a Winnipeg bird supply store, says she started hearing of cardinal sightings in Manitoba around 10 years ago.

“It was an extremely rare occurrence to see them, but there are now confirmed breeding pairs here in the province,” she said. “We know of several pairs that have been breeding successfully.”

Versluis said there have been sightings in different areas of the city, including St. Vital, East Kildonan, Charleswood, and Wolseley, but also outside of the city, such as Steinbach.

Paula Grieef, resident naturalist at the Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre, has also noted more sightings and speculates a changing climate in Manitoba could bring more species to the province that haven’t been there before.

“We didn’t have a winter with lots and lots of snow yet. So that is allowing more food to be available to them, and so that might cause some different movement patterns than we normally see,” she said. “They could have had a really good breeding year last year, and we’re seeing the results of that now.”

While photos and sightings of the birds may have increased over the years, cardinal sightings in Manitoba have occurred for almost a century.

“The first one was seen in 1932, and at the time, it was believed that it was an escaped cage bird,” said Rudolf Koes, a lifelong Manitoba birder who coordinates Winnipeg’s Christmas bird counts.

“But that probably was not the case, because after that, they have been seen fairly regularly, most of them in Winnipeg, but also lots across the south of the province, and even way up north. There was one in Thompson many years ago.”

However, despite the sightings, cardinals have not yet established a strong foothold in Manitoba. The bird’s territory in Canada tends to be in eastern provinces, such as Ontario.

“They’re not always consistent visitors to people’s feeders; they’ll be there for a period of time, and then they’re gone,” she said.

How to attract cardinals

When it comes to attracting cardinals to your yard, Versluis said you need to make sure the proper feeder is in place.

“They are a bit of a larger bird, so you want to make sure you have something like a platform-style feeder, or a feeder that has some kind of nice tray or ledge on it for them to be able to land on,” she said.

As for food, black oil sunflower seed or safflower are the best foods to lure cardinals to the yard, she said.

Koes recommends bird watchers check out manitobabirds.com to find information about cardinals and their sightings.