On Sundays I will sometimes go downstairs, retrieve a random tome, bring it upstairs and sit with my beautiful wife Susan while sipping coffee and reading. This, I tell my students, is called studying. At some point you read the same information enough to “know” it. Sure — there may be tiny details that you forget, but even the minutia of natural history can be transferred from the odd little shapes on sheets of paper to the even odder synaptic pathways of the memory center of your brain. Eventually, you just “know” things.
So, when I was outside to fill the feeders last week it was with the greatest delight that I heard the call of a goldfinch that wasn’t quite correct. I’ve read that description so many times that I was able to pair it with one of the audio files that is also burned into my memory and I instantly knew that I was hearing the chatter of common redpolls. I looked up from my task and there, on top of the hook from which I hang a tube feeder, was a little female redpoll that seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing. I immediately laughed out loud and asked, “Well, who are you?” For the record, the bird didn’t answer.
The common redpoll is a small finch of the northernmost parts of North America. Together with the pine siskin, pine grosbeak, evening grosbeak and two species of crossbills, this group of birds is known as the “winter finches.”
Tough little creatures, these birds are quite capable of spending the winter far to the north, but every now and then the food supply fails and the birds turn into nomadic refugees, fanning out across the lower provinces of Canada and the northernmost ribbon of the United States in a search for food.
Bird Nerds, such as myself, collect information on these birds and there is at least one website out there that provides a “Finch Forecast” every winter. Back in November the word went out that this winter would be an irruptive year and we could expect to see many of the winter finch species down here in the United States.
I did see some of these birds early on, but only in ones and twos and I feared that the flocks of nomads had passed by without finding my feeders. Then, at the beginning of February I saw one, two, three, 20 and even more redpolls at my feeders on a daily basis. One of the flocks finally stumbled across a well-stocked supply of food and they have been daily visitors since. The most entertaining thing about all of this is the fact that they were raised so far to the north that they simply don’t have too much experience with humans. As a result, they are calm, curious and approachable birds, in addition to being downright adorable.
So one of those little tidbits about redpolls that I have transferred from page to brain is the fact that they have a really interesting adaptation to help them survive the very cold winters of Canada. Redpolls have little pouches in their throats that they can fill with seeds without digesting the seeds. Picture the cheeks of a chipmunk and you have the right image in your mind.
The basic idea is that while the birds are feeding during the daytime, they can also build up a strategic reserve of food that they can access later when it is dark. Since winter nights are so long up in Canada, the birds need to eat during the night if they are to survive until morning. Day after day the redpolls go out in search of food and night after night they hope they found enough to simply get them through the night. If they live, then they have to do it all over again.
This endless search for food — for survival itself — makes the discovery of reliable birdfeeders extremely good fortune for flocks of hungry redpolls. Their numbers can swell flocks of 50-100 birds and they can really pack it away, but in return you will be able to spend time in the company of busy, bustling groups of birds that will be quite tolerant of your presence.
This is the first time I’ve had redpolls at my feeders since February 2015 and no one knows when they will be back again. So, if you think you’ve seen a redpoll, then make sure to keep your feeders full. One bird may arrive on a scouting mission and then come back later with a bunch of friends. All you have to do is keep your eyes peeled for a little bird with long vertical stripes on its breast feathers and a cranberry-red cap of feathers on the forehead. I recommend that you find a good book and read by the window where you can enjoy reading and birds at the same time.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 23 years and it has been 6 years since redpolls last visited his feeders. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service and the Massachusetts State Parks and currently teaches high school biology and physics. Visit www.speakingofnature.com for more information (including his email address), or head over to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.