Cardinals (Bird)
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40 free Cardinals (Bird) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The northern cardinal is the bird most North Americans can name on sight: a flash of red at the feeder, a pointed crest, a whistle that carries across a winter garden. It is also a bird full of surprises, from the way it gets its colour to the odd things it does in front of a window. This quiz covers the whole bird. There are questions on plumage, song, courtship, nests and diet, on the cardinal's close relatives and the look-alikes that only borrow its name, on its record as an official state bird, and on the sports teams, mascots and even a train that carry the name. It is written for backyard birdwatchers, students and anyone hosting a quiz night. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave knowing more about the bird than when you started.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Why do male northern cardinals so often attack windows and car mirrors during the breeding season?
They are fighting a rival
They are fighting a rival, or think so: a territorial cardinal takes his own reflection for an intruder and attacks it relentlessly.
Q 02How many US states have chosen the northern cardinal as their official state bird, a national record?
7
7 states have picked it, more than any other species, in a block running from Illinois and Ohio down to Virginia and North Carolina.
Q 03The northern cardinal is named after the red-robed senior clergy of which Christian church?
Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic cardinals wear distinctive red robes and caps, and the bird's genus name Cardinalis is simply the Latin word for them.
Q 04Rare northern cardinals that cannot turn the pigments in their food red grow feathers of which colour?
Yellow
Yellow cardinals lack the enzyme that converts food pigments into red ones, so the beak changes colour too, though the dark face mask stays.
Q 05Which feathers do northern cardinals sometimes drop all at once while molting, to startling effect?
Head plumes
Head plumes can fall out together, leaving a bald cardinal with charcoal skin and visible ear openings until they quickly regrow.
Q 06Which northern cardinal mascot playfully 'beaks' the heads of St. Louis baseball fans at Busch Stadium?
Fredbird
Fredbird has entertained Cardinals crowds since 1979, and his name plays on Redbird, an old nickname for both the species and the team.
Q 07During courtship, what does a male northern cardinal do for his mate beak-to-beak?
Feeds her seeds
He feeds her seeds, and the habit outlasts courtship: the male keeps bringing food to the female while she sits on the eggs.
Q 08Which rail company runs the Cardinal, a long-distance train named for the bird of states along its route?
Amtrak
Amtrak's Cardinal links New York with the Midwest by way of Charleston and Cincinnati, crossing a string of states that share the same state bird.
Q 09Which northern cardinals sing the loud whistled songs used to defend territories and court mates?
Both sexes
Both sexes sing clear whistled phrases, and a mated pair will sometimes sing together before nesting begins.
Q 10What colour is an adult female northern cardinal, in contrast to the brilliant red of the male?
Pale brown
Pale brown with a reddish tint on the wings, crest and tail, the female still shares the male's raised crest and coral-coloured beak.
Q 11Which seeds, favoured at feeders alongside safflower, are the classic way to attract a northern cardinal?
Sunflower
Sunflower seeds are the favourite, and feeders stocked with them may have helped the species spread northward over the past century.
Q 12What do northern cardinal parents mostly feed their nestlings, unlike the seed-heavy diet of the adults?
Insects
Insects make up almost all of a nestling's meals, and the adults crush each one in their beaks before handing it over.
Q 13What shape is the orange-red beak shared by male and female northern cardinals?
Cone-shaped
Cone-shaped beaks also do nest work: the female crushes twigs in hers until they are pliable enough to bend into a cup.
Q 21Which 1918 US law ended the once-thriving trade in northern cardinals as caged pets?
Migratory Bird Treaty Act
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act made it illegal to take, kill or possess a cardinal, a crime that can bring a fine and up to six months in prison.
Q 22Which naturalist gave the northern cardinal its first scientific description, in a landmark 1758 catalogue of species?
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus named it Loxia cardinalis in the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, and the bird changed genus several times before 1983.
Q 23Which birds often lay their eggs in northern cardinal nests, leaving the cardinals to raise the chicks?
Cowbirds
Q 14Where do female northern cardinals usually build their cup-shaped nests of twigs, bark strips and grasses?
In dense shrubs
In dense shrubs or vine tangles, the female hides a four-layered cup that takes up to nine days to build and is rarely used twice.
Q 15Which US state, far outside the northern cardinal's native range, has had the species since an introduction in 1929?
Hawaii
Hawaii gained its cardinals when birds were released there in 1929, and they now live on all of its major islands.
Q 16Which university's teams are called the Cardinal after a shade of red rather than the bird?
Stanford
Stanford students chose cardinal red as their colour in 1891, and with no bird to dress up, its unofficial mascot is a tree.
Q 17The NFL's Cardinals, named for faded maroon jerseys rather than the bird, were founded in which city?
Chicago
Chicago was home when owner Chris O'Brien bought used university jerseys in 1901 and declared their faded maroon to be cardinal red.
Q 18Which state began the tradition of official state birds by adopting the northern cardinal in 1926?
Kentucky
Kentucky led the way in 1926, and a campaign by the General Federation of Women's Clubs soon had other states naming birds of their own.
Q 19How do northern cardinals trap warm air against their bodies on freezing winter days?
By fluffing their feathers
By fluffing their feathers, cardinals hold a layer of warm air next to the skin, and in deep cold they also shiver to generate heat.
Q 20Which pigments, absorbed from food, give the male northern cardinal its brilliant red plumage?
Carotenoids
Carotenoids are converted inside the bird's body, and males fed a narrower range of them turn only a washed-out red.
Cowbirds build no nests of their own, and a cardinal pair's second nest of the season is often the one they target.
Q 24How does a northern cardinal usually move across the ground while foraging for fallen seeds?
By hopping
By hopping across open ground and through low bushes, cardinals find most of their food, though they sometimes forage higher in trees.
Q 25While a female northern cardinal incubates her next clutch, who keeps feeding the previous brood of fledglings?
Their father
Their father takes over, which frees the female to start again and lets a pair raise up to four broods in a single year.
Q 26The northern cardinal was once a candidate to become which state's official bird, losing out to a blue chicken?
Delaware
Delaware instead chose the Blue Hen Chicken in 1939, a gamecock strain linked to its Revolutionary War soldiers.
Q 27Which songbird, the pick of states from Kansas to Oregon, ranks second to the northern cardinal as a state bird?
Western meadowlark
Western meadowlark also represents Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming, where its flute-like song carries across open grassland.
Q 28Which university's Cyclones are represented by a cardinal mascot because a storm was too hard to costume?
Iowa State
Iowa State took the bird from its cardinal and gold colours in 1954, and a naming contest then christened the mascot Cy.
Q 29What colour is a young northern cardinal's beak before it turns the orange-red of an adult's?
Gray-black
Gray-black at hatching, the beak only reaches its adult colour when the young bird grows its final plumage in the fall.
Q 30Which close relative of the northern cardinal, found in the arid Southwest, is nicknamed the desert cardinal?
Pyrrhuloxia
Pyrrhuloxia shares its cousin's song and pointed crest but has a stubby, parrot-like bill, and the two may hybridise where their ranges overlap.