Male Northern Cardinal

morris
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p.1 #1 · Male Northern Cardinal

I've learned a lot about Northern Cardinal behaviour watching them at my feeder for many years. The male and female trade places with one eating while the other is on guard duty. I assume this behaviour is because they are so easy to spot. I took these photos of the male while the female was feeding on some nearby seeds at Kissena Park here in New York City.

Note that I've removed some twigs and branches to create cleaner images as well as cropped to fill the frame.

Comments and suggestions welcome,

Morris

X-H2S XF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/1000s 800 ISO +0.7 EV

X-H2S XF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/1600s 1600 ISO +1.0 EV

Feb 09, 2026 at 08:59 AM

Joe Mags
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p.1 #2 · Male Northern Cardinal

Such beautiful birds. I actually love the females also. That last shot is just fantastic.

Feb 09, 2026 at 09:08 AM

Erictator
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p.1 #3 · Male Northern Cardinal

The bookends for me on this colorful set Morris.

Look at that pointy tongue, bet he can munch down some serious seed out of that feeder in a hurry. He looks well fed for the near end of winter, heh.

Eric

Feb 09, 2026 at 10:09 AM

Karl Witt
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p.1 #4 · Male Northern Cardinal

You do pretty darn well with your pre-capture shots, last on is cool

I think taking out the in-focus branch (vertical) in #1 would be beneficial to your comp. For me the branch stops the gaze short, IMO

Nice color and details on these.
Karl

Feb 09, 2026 at 03:51 PM

amyandmark3
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p.1 #5 · Male Northern Cardinal

Nice job on these Morris, #4 for me.

Mark

Feb 09, 2026 at 04:17 PM

johnohio
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p.1 #6 · Male Northern Cardinal

Beautiful color on the bird, some nice poses. Well done & enjoyable.

John

Feb 09, 2026 at 05:03 PM

louie champan
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p.1 #7 · Male Northern Cardinal

What a beautiful bird and you've captured it very well. Looks like your Pre-capture works very well.

Feb 09, 2026 at 05:59 PM

morris
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p.1 #8 · Male Northern Cardinal

Joe Mags wrote:
Such beautiful birds. I actually love the females also. That last shot is just fantastic.

Thank you Joe,

While the male is the bright red, the female has more interesting coloring and enough bright red to make it my faverate.

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Erictator wrote:
The bookends for me on this colorful set Morris.

Look at that pointy tongue, bet he can munch down some serious seed out of that feeder in a hurry. He looks well fed for the near end of winter, heh.

Eric

Thank you Eric,

He was eating lots of grass seed near the spot I took the photo

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Karl Witt wrote:
You do pretty darn well with your pre-capture shots, last on is cool

I think taking out the in-focus branch (vertical) in #1 would be beneficial to your comp. For me the branch stops the gaze short, IMO

Nice color and details on these.
Karl

Thank you Karl,

I used to do the small bird takeoffs without the aid of pre-shot as Fuji calls it. That was super hard, this is simply fun!

I see what you are suggesting for the first, I'd still have the natural frame of the other branch.

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amyandmark3 wrote:
Nice job on these Morris, #4 for me.

Mark

Thank you Mark

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johnohio wrote:
Beautiful color on the bird, some nice poses. Well done & enjoyable.

John

Thank you John

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louie champan wrote:
What a beautiful bird and you've captured it very well. Looks like your Pre-capture works very well.

Thank you Louie,

Pre-shoot as Fuji calls this makes it so much fun compared to doing it without witch I used to do and that's very hard.

Morris

Feb 12, 2026 at 07:58 AM


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