Friday, June 12, 2015

Who loves bamboo? Cardinals do!

A female cardinal in nest-building mode landed on top of an outdoor spigot (a favorite perch for a variety of birds) with a beak full of brown bamboo leaves.


A mouth full of nesting material


With bamboo, old leaves fall off after new leaves form.  The grayish-brown, light-weight fibers fall to the ground and eventually decompose into the soil.


Old leaves fall off and cover the ground beneath a stand of bamboo


But this female cardinal had other purposes in mind for the faded foliage.  To her, it's the perfect material to weave into her nest.


Sitting pretty on top of an outdoor spigot


I captured the cardinal with nest-building on her mind.  Now all I have to do is see if I can figure out where she's secreted away her cozy compound.


Several years ago a cardinal decided to combine bamboo nesting material with the bamboo itself by building its nest in the middle of a clump of Angel Mist Timber Bamboo

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