Strikingly Beautiful Birds - Cardinals

It seems appropriate to start a post on this special and beloved bird with a poem. Here is the first stanza of a poem by William Davis Gallagher written in the 19th century.

The Cardinal Bird

A day and then a week passed by:
  The redbird hanging from the sill
Sang not; and all were wondering why
It was so still—
When one bright morning, loud and clear,
Its whistle smote my drowsy ear,
Ten times repeated, till the sound
Filled every echoing niche around;
And all things earliest loved by me,—
The bird, the brook, the flower, the tree,—
Came back again, as thus I heard
    The cardinal bird.

- See more at: http://allpoetry.com/The-Cardinal-Bird#sthash.4xnbsY2t.dpuf

Now some beautiful pictures of Cardinals - keep the poem in the back of your mind as you view these images beginning with Audubon and the Northern Cardinal of North America.


Audubon: Cardinal
John James Audubon






Female Northern Cardinal in Snowy Pine Tree
Adam Jones







Male Cardinal With Wings Spread
Wendy Kaveney





Red Crested Cardinal
F.w. Frohawk





Dominican Cardinal
F.w. Frohawk





Green Cardinal
F.w. Frohawk





Yellow Billed Cardinal
F.w. Frohawk







Northern Cardinal Female on Snowy Ground
Tom Vezo/Minden...





A Touch of Red
Kevin Daniel







Male Northern Cardinal among Crabapple Blossoms
Adam Jones

Some Beautiful Bird Images and Food for Thought

I thought I would start off the new year with some beautiful interesting bird images and a thought provoking quotation.

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal " -  Albert Pike

 




Surucua Trogon, Iguazu Falls, Argentina


Toft, Roy


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Scissor-Tailed and Vermilion Flycatchers Perch on a Mesquite Tree


Weber, Walter


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Red-tailed Hawk

Photo credit: Martha Coaty

A great photo thats looks right into the eyes of a raptor.

Red-faced Warbler

Image Credit: Public Domain Image by Louis Agassiz Fuertes

One of western North America's most colorful birds, the Red-faced Warbler was a thrill for me to see. It happened in May, 1988 in southeastern Arizona and I can play a movie of the sighting in my mind to this day. When I was a kid I used to sit and page through a National Geographic book called Song and Garden Birds of North America and a picture of the Red-faced Warbler was in there. It was an exotic bird of the western U.S. and it fueled adventurous feelings. To finally see it in person after having seen it in the book was very fun.

Wood Duck drake

Photo Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Speaking of colorful birds, here is a marvelous image of one of North America's most beautiful ducks.

My next photo is a delightful picture of an owlet.

Juvenile Flammulated Owl

Photo Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Resplendent Quetzal, Central America


Ulrich, Tom


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Painted Bunting


Cornell, John


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