{"id":11096,"date":"2021-07-09T09:35:23","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T13:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/?p=11096"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:51:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:51:46","slug":"mike-runtz-on-noisy-showy-cardinals-reproducing-more-thanks-to-your-birdseed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/2021\/mike-runtz-on-noisy-showy-cardinals-reproducing-more-thanks-to-your-birdseed\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Runtz on Noisy, Showy Cardinals Reproducing More Thanks to Your Birdseed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Mike Runtz on Noisy, Showy Cardinals Reproducing More Thanks to Your Birdseed\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Boredom-busting backyard bird feeders&nbsp;have boosted the already growing cardinal population in Ottawa during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to local birders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local bird counts show the population of northern cardinals&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;or in unimaginative Latin nomenclature,&nbsp;<em>Cardinalis cardinalis&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;<\/em>was already rising before the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<section id=\"inread-wrapper-id-38447244\"><\/section>\n\n\n\n<p>Then isolated families began sprucing up their backyards for themselves&nbsp;and for hungry birds looking for an easy meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;More people were feeding birds last winter,&#8221; said Ottawa naturalist Michael Runtz. &#8220;Costco was being sold out of sunflower seeds regularly, and that&#8217;s unusual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;If the females are well-fed, they produce more eggs&nbsp;and &#8230; more young.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/birds-cardinals-population-covid-19-feeders-climate-change-1.6091882\">more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boredom-busting backyard bird feeders&nbsp;have boosted the already growing cardinal population in Ottawa during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to local birders. Local bird counts show the population of northern cardinals&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;or in unimaginative Latin nomenclature,&nbsp;Cardinalis cardinalis&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;was already rising before the pandemic hit. Then isolated families began sprucing up their backyards for themselves&nbsp;and for hungry birds looking for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11098,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11096\/revisions\/11098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}