VA STATE FLOWER, TREE AND BIRD The Cardinal and Dogwood Virginia's flowering dogwood has been the Crested, short-winged, long-tailed birds, official floral emblem of the state since March 1918 cardinals, are from seven and a half to nine and a when it edged out Virginia creeper by one vote. Then quarter inches long, with a wingspread of from 10 on January 25, 1950, the cardinal became the official 1/4 to 12 inches. The male is red except for a grayish state bird of Virginia. tone on the back, wings and tall and a black patch The flowering dogwood, Cornus florida, is a from the upper throat surrounding the red beak. The large shrub or small tree that usually grows from four female is olive grayish on the head and body, with a to 12 feet tall, though individual trees often attain dull red on the bill, crest, wings and tall. The bill patch much greater heights. It has very rough bark and is state colored, and the underparts are yellowish spreading branches. The wood, close grained and brown. Young cardinals resemble the female except hard, is used especially for shuttles and cogs in textile for their dark beaks. machinery and for inlaying in fine cabinet work. In March the flocks break up into mated pairs and What we speak of as the “flower” is a small nesting gets under way. The bulk), nests are loosely compact cluster of inconspicuous greenish-white true built of twigs, leaves, bark strips, rootlets, weed flowers surrounded by large showy petal-like bracts stems and grasses. They are cupped quite deeply and which are usually white, but sometimes pink and lined with fine grass and hair. The three or four occasionally even rose red. white, greenish or bluish white eggs are variously The red fruit of the dogwood is a spherical drupe, spotted, blotched or dotted with shades of brown. either one- or two-celled in our species, and the seeds Often one egg is strikingly different from the others, are oblong. (A drupe is a fleshy fruit with a hard seed smaller and whiter and seemingly from a different at the center; e.g., a peach.) Since the berry-like bird. drupes of the dogwood, which ripen late in the Nests are usually low, sometimes only three feet summer, stay on the branches well into winter, they from the ground, but their average height is six to are very useful as a wildlife food for upland game eight feet and the site is well camouflaged. Nests have birds, song birds, waterfowl, small mammals like the been observed as high as 30 feet from the ground in a chipmunk and the white-footed mouse, and fur and vine-covered sapling. Garden shrubbery, porch vines, game animals like deer, bear, beaver, rabbit, skunk thickets, briar patches, evergreens, a tangle of and fox. Some of these utilize not only the fruit but grapevines - these are preferred sites. also the wood and foliage as browse. The cardinal is a year-round resident and flaunts Dogwood foliage contains two-way whitish hairs, its brilliant plumage even against the snow and on flattened to the surface and attached at the middle of bare winter trees. Throughout the winter, cardinals the leaf. In Virginia it is found both in the Tidewater are found in mixed flocks and are easily attracted to and up to an altitude of 4,400 feet above sea level in winter-feeding stations by sunflower seeds, corn or the mountains. From the middle of April on, its mixed seeds. In the fall, dogwood, black gum, radiant flowering lights the woods and gardens of the pokeberries and wild grasses make up a large part of Old Dominion. In fall die dogwood continues to hold a their food. Cardinals dispose of many garden pests, bright spot with its red-mottled leaves and scarlet too, for they feed their young exclusively on insects fruit that usually lasts well into the winter. and nearly a third of the adult bird's diet is also As valuable as they are lovely, with their delicate insects. floral-like bracts, their fine-grained sturdy wood and The song of cardinals is a series of clear rapid their fruits and browse for wildlife, dogwood trees whistles, each sound repeated several times, as in are ideal for planting to beautify the landscape and “What-cheer, what-cheer, what-cheer,” “Purty, purty, attract birds. purty,” “Kew, kew, kew,” “Whoit, whoit, whoit.” The The dogwood has been known by many names. male starts tuning up his vast repertoire when the Since it is ideal for arrows, it was used for first sunny days of February come and by spring is in manufacture in both the Old and New World and is full voice. Though the peak exuberance of his singing consequently known in literature both as “arrow- may be over by mid-July, about the time the second wood” and “Indian arrowwood.” It has also been brood is leaving the nest, he may favor us with called “false boxwood,” “cornelian tree,” “Nature's unexpected singing at almost any time of year. mistake,” “Florida dogwood,” “white cornel,” “spindle “Virginia nightingale” was the name first settlers tree” and “bird cherry.” Its scientific name (Cornus gave the cardinal because its melodious voice florida) is derived from “cornu,” the Latin word for reminded them of their favorite English bird. horn, in allusion to the hardness of the wood. reference: Virginia's Wildlife. publication of the Virginia Commission on Game and Inland Fisheries, 1986 .