5 things you may not know about London's new official bird: the Northern Cardinal

London, meet your official bird: the Northern Cardinal.

Last month, the London Bird Team, working in co-operation with the City of London, polled people on which species should become the southwestern Ontario city's official bird. A third of the 6,000 votes chose the Northern Cardinal to represent the Forest City, and that was enough to seal the deal.

Brendon Samuels, aPhD student in biology at Western University and co-ordinator for the bird team, spoke with London Morning'sRebecca Zandbergen for a quick 101 on the red bird.

Here are five things you may not haveknown about the Northern Cardinal:

1. Theydon't migrate

"They're able to do that because they've got a number of adaptations that allow them to survive in the cold. They've got really dense feathers. They have behaviours that help keep them out of the cold, like beinglow to the ground when it's windy."

2. They have a really varied diet

"In spring, summer and fall, they eat insects, but in the winter, they can switch to eating fruit, seeds or other nuts, thingsthat they find abundantin the wintertime."

3. They're verysweet

"The male birds will feedthe female birds as part of their courtship. You'll often see them hopping around in the grass, sharing food."

4.The malesare ferocious

"If you work with birds and ever have one in your hands, you have to be very careful not to lose a finger. They have a very strong bite with their beak. They will clamp down on you like nothing else."

5. London is known as the cardinal capital of Canada

"Each year when we go out and do the Christmas bird count in wintertime, we find a lot of cardinals, more than we find in surrounding areas, which is part of why cardinal is such a fittingbird for London. It's quite warm and wet here, so it provides abundant food for them."