When she felt clean Scarlett hopped to the edge of her tub, then flew to her swing where she spent another twenty minutes preening and cleaning her wing ... "No, if this were a male he would be red all over by now," John insisted.
Author: Shirley Dowling
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 9781468562552
Category: Juvenile Nonfiction
Page: 70
View: 555
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After a failed attempt to fly, a fledgling female cardinal is saved from the jaws of a cat and brought into the home of a family living on Florida's coast. Raised with an eyedropper and a great deal of loving care, the tiny bird encounters many adventures in her young life, including a three-day ordeal outdoors during an intense winter storm, during which she nearly dies before the family finds her and brings her indoors again. Later when she answers the mating call of a male redbird on the other side of the patio's screen, the family attempts to lure her to his side outdoors, but instead the male chooses to come inside the patio to live with her there. She builds a nest, and together the pair rides out a hurricane, as she hunkers lower on her three tiny speckled eggs while her mate stands by on the branch above the nest. Her name is Scarlett, his name is Red, and the story reaches a happy ending with the arrival of the pair's first-hatched baby bird.
