In the Elizabethan rom-com Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare tells a tale as old as time. The adaptations of this play have included motion pictures, an opera, and a Wisconsin-centric musical called Muskie Love. And in all of them, two people who seem to detest each other eventually discover that their intense emotions actually are love---that they are Valentines.
A male Northern Cardinal is as red as a heart-shaped box of candy and during breeding season, this male bird seems to be as sweet as chocolate. Repeatedly, he carefully selects a delicious morsel of food and presents it to his less colorful mate. It's so tender.
In winter, not so much. Even mated pairs seem to drift apart, traveling in loose flocks. But a dominant male is VERY territorial, and if he finds a good source of food like, for example, a bird feeder, he defends it. He will not tolerate a female, even his mate of the previous season. He postures, threatens and drives her away until he has eaten more than his share before he allows her anywhere near the feeder.
The tables get turned as the days get longer. In preparation to lay eggs, the females must eat as much as possible, so in early spring, female cardinals tend to appropriate a feeder. I've seen a female drive off an approaching male.
But as spring approaches, the male and female begin sharing the feeder, and by May, they begin their courtship rituals which involves dancing, singing duets, flight displays, a lot of fluttering and beak-to -beak courtship feeding which looks rather like kissing. They form a pair and build a nest together and raise one or two broods. It looks like TRUE LOVE FOREVER…and the pair probably will stay mated (though perhaps not entirely faithful) till death do them part.
