It's not a bird in the one instance it is used. The "Cardinals" are not the same as the Stanford Cardinal. See http://www.gostanford.com/school-bio/stan-nickname-mascot.html
Interesting that given the thread topic, the Cardinal name was only revived after Stanford booted its own Indian mascot (I didn't know that before reading the link myself).
Anyway, I still think Ole Miss lost out by not taking Akbar when they had the opportunity.
