This is so fucking relevant to me right now, just yesterday I heard a woodpecker on my walk and I made it my mission to spot it in that giant tree. Then in my later walk I saw a red cardinal. Later I was talking about how it’s kinda cheating when people pick ostrich, peacock, penguin etc as their favorite birds, and it slowly dawned on me that I’m becoming a bird guy.
Me too. I live in an area now with hawks, ravens, and I can hear a Great Horned Owl at night, but never been able to spot it. These all make me inordinately excited.
Cardinals are great, that are really pretty birds that are common enough that you can probably spot one daily in most parts of the US is you take a walk.