Having grown up in an area without cardinals, I'm delighted to now live somewhere that has a few of them about in winter. There's a mated pair that keep pretty close together around our house, and they're a delight to watch together.
I grew up in Silicon Valley and had never seen a cardinal in the wild until a couple years ago. Currently in the Midwest and see them in my yard and I love them. My home office has a bay window and there is a bush that backs up to part of it, so I can look into the bush. The cardinals love to go in it and I can watch them from my desk. It really is a delight.
I also love goldfinches. I had a bird feeder that only they can eat from and had so much fun watching them. Plus it made it so I can instantly recognize their calls.
And the tufted titmouse is the cutest regular I see.
I always assumed that they lived in Silicon Valley because the sports teams from Stanford are called "Cardinal". But I just looked it up and they're named after the colour, not the bird.
