HOW DO BRIGHT RED MALE CARDINALS SURVIVE?

HOW DO BRIGHT RED MALE CARDINALS SURVIVE? Jack Sanders, who writes a wonderful column on birds in the Darien Times, asked this question. It’s the kind of question that scientists ask and that never occur to me. As with many evolutionary questions, where experiments are hard to do, the proposed answers are cautiously stated. It is agreed that the male cardinal’s color probably evolved because of the advantage to attracting female cardinals. But what about attracting hawks? Hawks can see red. The article has a number of proposed explanations. 1. Hawks see differently than we do, including seeing in the ultraviolet ranges so that cardinals may not stand out to a hawk. 2. The green of a forest may absorb red light so that cardinals don’t stand out against a green background. 3. There are more cardinals than hawks so that enough cardinals may survive for evolutionary purposes. 4. While hawks can see red, their favored prey has more muted colors so that hawks may focus on birds with muted colors. 5. Cardinals spend a lot of time hidden in foliage.