Jack, that is one fat cardinal!! We have a cardinal couple who dine on the sunflower seeds and peanut pieces we put out. For a few days, we didn’t see the female, named Marona, but the male, Rojito, was around. I was picking up small branches after a window storm and was near the thatch of palmettos that I often see Rojito and Marona around. I heard the high chirps of babies. Mystery solved! Marona was mommying.

A Google search told me that cardinals kick their babies out about 10 days after birth. We are past the 10-day mark and Marona is now flying about. Sadly, we never saw the babies. I hope they survived.

Hey, Deb, my neighbor has a bird feeder, and rather than the squirrels outsmarting the contraption, the black-bellied whistling ducks have! Well, at least one has. He lands on the top of it and then leans way over, far enough that it looks like he will fall on his head. But, he has damn good balance and manages to get his beak into the little feeding tray and has a feast! All very surprising because those ducks have pea brains and aren’t very intelligent!

Thanks for sharing your backyard roommates with us, Jack.

Deb, lighten up on the squirrels! They’ve got to eat, too. If you feed them peanuts, maybe they won’t bother your feeder.