Strange behavior from female Cardnial(s)

Today while walking through the neighborhood I noticed a male and large female Cardnial on a driveway. The male was at the top and the female in the middle of the driveway. The female was flopping around as if hurt while the male stood in its place. Curious we decided to walk up the driveway as the bird is still flopping around. As we got closer (within 15 feet) the bird actually seperated and the large female was now 2 female Cardinals. After a split second of seperation they went back to flopping around together paying us no attention. We continued to approach (within 10 feet) and they seperated briefly and flew to the top of the driveway still at each others neck. They eventually flew into the backyard still going at it. Since this wasn't my yard we decided to leave and went home.

I've never seen anything like this and the one time I needed my camera Any idea what was going on?

Cat fight?

(It's a joke - don't take it seriously.)

Regards,
GEWB

I had a similar occurrence a few days ago. Two female cardinals were fighting in mid-air and fell directly in front of my truck as I was driving down the road. Fortunately, I was slowing down to make a turn so I slammed on the brakes and avoided hitting them. They fought for awhile more on the road, completely oblivious to me, before flying off.

I think they do this while fighting over their territory. I found this while researching this behavior:

"Many people are perplexed each spring by the sight of a cardinal attacking its reflection in a window, car mirror, or shiny bumper. Both males and females do this, and most often in spring and early summer when they are obsessed with defending their territory against any intruders. Birds may spend hours fighting these intruders without giving up. A few weeks later, as levels of aggressive hormones subside, these attacks should end".

On an unrelated note, a cardinal is now sitting on a nest right outside our kitchen window. This is the third nest in the past two years outside our house windows. I got some great photos of the mother and father feeding the their babies the last time. I hope to do the same again this year if the nest survives and the babies hatch. It is a wonderful thing to watch the parents stuff all manner of insects down the throats of their young.