Winter Birds

Some visitors to our winter bird feeders are permanent residents. Birds like the blue jay, chickadee, and tufted titmouse live and breed locally merely moving about from one food source to another. Others have migrated into our area for a variety of reasons. The most common reasons are to take advantage of a good food supply and better shelter. Our regular winter visiting songbirds, like the junco (photo) and white-throat sparrow, find our area has a good supply of the seeds and nuts and provides a safer environment then the more northern regions where they spend the summer. Generally the snow is not as deep or long lasting. More importantly, the days are longer allowing them more daylight to feed. Most songbirds have a weak sense of smell and rely on their eyes for finding food. Some of our winter birds only visit us occasionally. Pine siskins, evening grosbeaks and redpolls make their homes in the northern coniferous forest. If there is a poor northern seed crop, they will move further south into our region in search of food. Some years they flock to our feeders, while in other years, they are nowhere in sight. What all our winter songbirds have in common is the ability to eat seeds and nuts. Most of the songbirds that mainly depend on insects or nectar left our area in the fall for better feeding grounds.