The weather’s been socked in lately, the rain having finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest. It’s very pleasant to sit inside on cold wet days and watch the birds at the feeders fueling up on our very short days of winter.
I was thinking recently how different the birds are in winter compared to summer. Seed gets consumed at about the same rate (less in fall and spring) so it’s not because more birds are feeding there now. In summer it’s breeding birds and fledglings munching down and in winter it’s our residents who are finding food less abundant or easy to find. Our climate is far more benign than most locations in the northern states — it rarely snows or even freezes — but seeds and berries start to run low by mid winter, and as I mentioned, birds don’t have much daylight time to forage for them: it’s just getting light at 8am and it’s dark by 4pm. Birds have to chow down on enough seed in 8 hours to keep them going through 16 hours of night.
Some of our winter birds are as common in winter as summer. The House Finches are among the most abundant birds we have all year. Purple Finches are as abundant if not more so in summer, but sparse and unpredictable in winter. I don’t know where they go. Birds of North America says: “The Purple Finch is noted for quasicyclical irruptions across portions of its winter range, thought to be associated with year to year variation in the production of northern conifer cones.” (birdsna.org/...)
This brief video clip I filmed yesterday gives a sense of how busy the birds are at my feeder these days, and the preponderance of House Finches:
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There are trees near my house that are staging areas for the birds. The plum tree on the corner is especially popular.
Red-breasted Nuthatches are regulars all year. In winter I’ll see one at a time; in summer as many as half a dozen will be clinging and beeping as the many fledglings get sorted out. Unlike the Finches who sit and eat for a while, Nuthatches are grab-n-go feeders, extracting seed from the side rather than the tray.
It’s not surprising that summer migrants, like Goldfinches, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Red Crossbills, the occasional Evening Grosbeak, are absent. What’s more remarkable is the different behavior of year-round birds, due to seasonal changes in food availability.
For example, Dark-eyed Juncos are quite abundant all year but only in winter do they come to the feeder. Both on the feeder itself —
— but even more so on the deck below the feeder. This snowy day picture is unusually crowded, but most winter days have lots of juncos gleaning seeds dropped from the feeder.
I get the impression juncos prefer to feed on the ground (the roof of my greenhouse) but I never see this kind of scene in summer. Instead, the juncos are hopping around under bushes, in the garden, in the woods, by roadsides. Birdweb (birdweb.org/...) says the diet of Juncos in summer is half insects, half seeds while in winter it’s all seeds and berries. The juncos are drawn to the feeder, even though it’s a boring diet of only sunflower seeds, now insects have pretty much died off or gone dormant. Not all the insects though. Golden-crowned Kinglets live off insects and larvae all winter long. Just as well the juncos don’t go for those, since kinglets depend on them.
Another bird that depends on insects is the Golden-crowned Sparrows (birdweb.org/...), but only in summer where those are abundant, in British Columbia and Alaska. In the fall they fly south and shift their diet to seeds and berries. Golden-crowned Sparrows forage under the feeder, as well as in bushes and grasses.
Pine Siskins show up at any time of year but unpredictably. I’m as likely to see them in winter as summer, both on the feeder and below. It’s always a sweet surprise to see them appear.
Spotted Towhees are year round birds but like the juncos, only come to the feeder in winter, and for the same reason. With insects in short supply, they’re happy to munch on sunflower seeds. Towhees are big sparrows, and prefer to forage on the deck, but can manage to find a perching spot at the tray.
There are a few year-round birds who come by the feeder in winter now and then, like Collared Doves, Red-winged Blackbirds, Starlings, Song Sparrows. Occasionally our Fox sparrows — winter birds — forage on the deck.
Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers can manage both the seed and suet feeder while Flickers go for suet only. Blackbirds and Starlings would prefer the suet feeder but that’s a trickier source for them. And another story!
Do you keep a seed feeder at your house, and if so, winter, summer? What seasonal differences do you see among your birdy visitors?
Dawn Chorus is now open for your birdy observations of the week.