The Cardinal Family: who knew?

Here is Mr. Cardinal - I call him Red - watching carefully from the branches of the evergreen next to all the feeders.

Here is his daughter, Coral Cardinal, boldly gazing back at me while eating the seeds that have spilled on the ground.

And here is the son, Rusty Cardinal, who is completely ignoring me today....All these pictures were taken at the same time: I have a cardinal family that visits my feeder center several times a day. Who knew that cardinals were so family-oriented? There is papa - so gorgeous in his brilliant red coat; mama, a soft brown with touches and hints of red and a pretty feather sticking up on the top of her head; and the kids, at this point I think there are two females and a male but they move back and forth so quickly I may be counting someone twice.

They come in and hide in the brushy limbs of the evergreens and then jump down to get all the seeds off the ground that the chickadees and nuthatches have dropped from the feeders.

Twice or three times a day they visit: parents watching from the branches, kids much more brazen about eating. Is this normal, for a bird family to take outings to the local drive-in together? I really thought that birds were solitary creatures....

I may be projecting but from my desk, but the view outside my window of this family coming to visit is the highlight of my day.