State birds
What is the Illinois state bird?
The Illinois state bird is the Northern Cardinal. Illinois schoolchildren chose it from a list of five birds, the General Assembly made it official in 1929, and the law today, 5 ILCS 460/10, designates “Cardinalis Cardinalis, commonly known as the ‘Cardinal’” the official State Bird.
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How did Illinois schoolchildren choose the cardinal?
By ballot. “Illinois schoolchildren chose the Cardinal as the state bird from a list,” says the Illinois State Museum, which records the count: cardinal 39,226 votes, bluebird 30,306, meadowlark 16,237, quail 15,843 and oriole 15,449.
The vote was held at the urging of the Macomb branch of a federation of professional women's clubs, according to a 2009 article in the Department of Natural Resources' magazine, OutdoorIllinois.
Lawmakers did the rest. “The General Assembly made that designation official in 1929,” says the DNR's booklet Illinois Common Birds. Kentucky had named the cardinal in 1926 (Kentucky Legislature), so Illinois was the second of the seven cardinal states.
Today the cardinal sits in the State Designations Act: 5 ILCS 460/10 says it “is designated the official State Bird of the State of Illinois.” The section's source note, P.A. 87-273, is the act that gathered Illinois's older symbol laws into one, not the law of 1929.
Was the cardinal always common in Illinois?
No, and that is the twist in Illinois's choice. Around 1900, cardinals were “considered rare in the northern part of the state,” the State Museum says; they have become “quite abundant” since.
Even when the children voted, “the birds were more common in the southern part of the state,” Jeffery Walk of The Nature Conservancy told OutdoorIllinois in 2009. What changed? “Bird-feeding has probably helped them increase their range,” he said, and the State Museum calls cardinals “common visitors to bird feeders.”
Audubon knew they reached Illinois. In the text beside our plate, published in 1841, he wrote that cardinals “extend to considerable distances into Indiana, Illinois and Missouri” (Audubon's text, vol. 3).
Where can you see cardinals in Illinois?
Almost anywhere, in any month. The DNR calls the cardinal “a common, permanent resident statewide in Illinois,” at home in “woodlands, thickets, brushy and weedy areas, residential areas and parks” (DNR, April 2017). “Cardinals are even found in our large cities,” adds the DNR's state symbols activity book.
They nest “from April to August,” and the State Museum says the eggs are laid “between the middle of April and the middle of August.”
The oldest cardinal in the federal banding records lived at least 15 years and 9 months: a female banded in Pennsylvania in 1956 and found again there in 1971 (USGS Bird Banding Laboratory; more on our page of the oldest wild birds).
Why is there a cardinal on an Illinois license plate?
To raise money for parks. In 2011 Secretary of State Jesse White announced a new green environmental plate that “features a cardinal which is the official state bird of Illinois,” with part of the fee going to the State Parks Fund (news release, July 6, 2011).
The plate was already a favorite. “More than 40,000 motorists” had the environmental plate, the release said, which made it the state's “largest selling specialty plate.”
Which other states chose the cardinal?
Six: Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, from Kentucky in 1926 to Virginia in 1950 (Virginia Legislative Information System). Why so many chose the same bird is the subject of our guide to the cardinal state bird.
North Carolina also put its choice to a vote, run by its bird club (NCpedia). And the bird that came second in Illinois, the bluebird, is the state bird of New York and Missouri today.
Questions about the Illinois state bird
When did the cardinal become the Illinois state bird?
The General Assembly made it official in 1929, after Illinois schoolchildren voted for it.
Which birds were on the Illinois state bird ballot?
Five: the cardinal, the bluebird, the meadowlark, the quail and the oriole. The cardinal won with 39,226 votes.
Do cardinals stay in Illinois in winter?
Yes. The DNR calls the cardinal a permanent resident statewide, and cardinals often come to feeders.
Is there a cardinal on Illinois license plates?
Yes. In 2011 the state put a cardinal on its green environmental plate, and part of the plate's fee goes to the State Parks Fund.
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