Brave Little Cardinal

Maybe it’s because the birds see me sitting in my outside chair every day and have gotten used to me, but yesterday was the first time a Red-Crested Cardinal (also known in Hawaii as the Brazilian Cardinal) ever came this close to me.

I checked the species out and Paroaria coronata actually is a tanager (Thraupidae) and isn’t very closely related at all to true cardinals (Cardinalidae). Introduced to Hawaii and Puerto Rico, it’s normally found in South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay).

I tried to coax it closer, but apparently it doesn’t understand English, Spanish OR Portuguese. Not even pidgin English. Shucks.