Some Lawn Fringillidae

     When I was about ten years old, I heard and saw a bright-red male cardinal singing from the tip of a pear tree in a Lancaster City, Pennsylvania back yard.  He was the first cardinal I ever saw, and I thought he, and his songs, were beautiful among new leaves and before the blue sky.  And he was especially brilliant in sunlight.
     The attractive northern cardinals, song sparrows and house finches are permanent resident fringillidae, or seed-eating, birds that live and raise young in thickets in hedgrows and woodland edges.  And, because they are adaptable, they also hatch offspring in shrubbery on lawns across much of the United States, where they are three of the most common bird species in that human-made habitat.  Being adaptable enough to nest in suburban areas helps build up their populations.
     These native, North American species, being related and sharing habitats, have several characteristics in common.  They are all insect eaters during warmer months, but consume seeds in winter.  They all come to bird feeders any time of year to ingest seeds and grain.  There these handsome birds, and others, provide us humans with much beauty, entertainment and inspiration.  Male cardinals, song sparrows and house finches sing delightful ditties early each spring in their thicket and lawn shrubbery homes.  They all begin to sing and court females of their kinds as early as warm afternoons in the middle of February, offering another local sign of spring.  And all these birds build cup nurseries of tiny twigs, rootlets and grasses tucked away in sheltering bushes in hedgerows, woodland edges and lawns.
     Most every bushy habitat has its pair of cardinals.  Male cardinals usually sing their lovely songs of "cheer, cheer, cheer", from lofty perches overlooking their home territories.  Recently fledged cardinals have brown beaks instead of the pink ones of their parents.  The warm-red of cardinals is most appreciated in winter when several of those birds are among coniferous trees on lawns with snow on the ground and in the trees.
     Song sparrows are brown and dark-streaked, which camouflages them among shrubbery, weeds and grasses.  This type of sparrow gets much of its summer, invertebrate food from the muddy, thicket-choked shores of streams and ponds.  There it plays the role of sandpipers in a narrow niche where those shorebirds won't go.             
     House finches are originally from the American west.  Many of them were taken to New York City to be sold in pet shops to be cage birds.  But keeping them was illegal and some pet shop owners released house finches into New York rather than being fined for having them for sale.  Of course, boys met girls for many generations and now house finches inhabit much of the eastern United States. 
     The lovely male house finches are gray with dark streaks and pink on their heads, chests and backs.  Female and young birds are similar to the males, but don't have the pink.
     House finches nest in bushes, young arborvitae trees and sheltered places on buildings.  But they don't seem to be able to compete with wintering gangs of aggressive house sparrows, so many house finches retire to hedgerows and woods edges through winter.  But they return to the suburbs again too court and rear youngsters.    
     These related, seed-eating birds are present in most every shrubby lawn, where they live permanently and raise young.  They are all handsome birds and sing delightful songs early in spring when we need it most.  They are well worth having and knowing as neighbors.