Q: I'm enjoying seeing a male and female cardinal at my feeders and sitting in a nearby tree together. Are they a couple? A: Cardinal pairs don't separate after nesting season, as many songbirds do.

The female cardinal does all the nest-building but the male feeds her while she is working. It takes her a little over a week — sometimes less — to build the nest. The cardinal attempting to nest in ...

Editor's note: Jamie Hill was misidentified in a previous version of this story. Longtime birder Jamie Hill of Waterford knew he'd come across something rare when he saw the northern cardinal that ...