It won’t be long before the breeding season is fully underway for birds in Florida. There have been signs starting for the last couple of weeks. Some of our wading birds are getting the long, beautiful feather plumes that are part of their breeding plumage. Smaller songbirds are becoming more brightly colored and are becoming more territorial. I’m especially noticing the latter among my Carolina wrens and northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis). There have been more scuffles and plenty of singing, especially with the male cardinals. After one particularly intense scuffle Poppa ran off two of his sons from last year. Afterwards, he perched in a branch not far above my head and spent a couple of minutes just looking around at his territory with an attitude of self assurance.