Winter Backyard Birding

Today turned out to be a huge day in my backyard! With the falling temperatures in the Louisville area, the birds had to find food and water! I decided to buy a birdbath heater this year, and I'm glad I did. It has performed very well thus far. This morning it was nine degrees, and although a great deal of it did freeze, there was a small area around the heating element that was open water. The birds really responded! I think they appreciated some fresh, non frozen water to drink!



Northern Cardinal (female)

European Starling

Mourning Dove

I happened to notice a very small bird very high in my Maple tree. When I got a closer look, I could see it was a Golden-crowned Kinglet! This photo is somewhat blurry, but it gives you an idea of what he looks like. He also moves around very fast and erratically. I believe he was coming to the Maple tree to drink sap that was seeping out of the branches. He would come to the Maple for a few minutes then fly off to a pine tree in the neighbors yard! He did this several times throughout the day! 

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Another highlight from the day was the Red-breasted Nuthatch! These guys don't usually come this far south, but with the finch irruption this winter, the Red-breasted Nuthatch, though not a finch, is also a species on the move. I started seeing him in late fall and haven't seen him very often since, but it is my guess that he needed to find another food source with the cold temperatures. 

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

A female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker spent most of the day in the Maple tree drilling sap wells. When another woodpecker would come near, she would chase him off. She didn't seem to mind other birds though. There were many birds and squirrels drinking from these sap wells, including the Red-breasted Nuthatch in the photo below the Sapsucker photo. 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Red-breasted Nuthatch drinking from sap wells

I have been having a Pine Warbler visiting my feeders since early December. I didn't know what it was for a long time, but I showed the pictures to some of the members of Beckham Bird Club and they felt it was a Pine Warbler. This is a rare bird to be in this area at this time of year. Most Warblers migrate to Central or South America! I am noticing that I usually only see him when it's very cold or very rainy. This makes sense to me, as Warblers tend to mainly eat insects. He seems to like the suet and the black oil sunflower seed!
If you would like to see some of my other pictures of the Pine Warbler, click here. 

Pine Warbler

I ended up seeing 23 different species in my yard today!

Posted in: Backyard Birding,European Starling,Golden-crowned Kinglet,Mourning Dove,Northern Cardinal,Pine Warbler,Red-breasted Nuthatch,Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers

Finch Superflight

If you don't have your feeders out yet, get to it, because this winter is shaping up to be a spectacular one.  This year is being deemed a finch "superflight".  What exactly does that mean?  A "superflight" means a mass migration of many species of birds to areas where they are not usually seen.  In this case we are talking about many species of Canadian birds flying south to parts of the U.S. that are not normally part of their winter range.  Some of these species are known as "irruptive" species, like the Pine Siskin, that have erratic movements in winter as they follow food sources.  So the "superflight" can be thought of as a mass "irruption", with many birds on the move in search of food.

The reason for this winter's superflight is due to the drought and mass nut and pine cone failure in Canada.  If you remember here in Louisville a couple years ago, we had a late frost in May that killed all the flowers on the trees, which led to a mass failure of the nut crop.  That year there were virtually no acrons, beech nuts, or hickory to be found.  What happened in the drought in Canada this year is similar.  Without their usual food crops to be found, birds are venturing far and wide to find food, maybe to your backyard.  Which is why you should get your feeders up ASAP if you haven't already, because the flight has started and there are already interesting Canadian birds being reported in Louisville and the surrounding area.  Learn more about the superflight on the ebird blog. 

Red-breasted Nuthatch by Karen Bonsell 

 Some of the birds we might see this year are: Red-breasted Nuthatches, Pine Siskins, both species of crossbills, Common Redpolls, even possibly Evening Grosbeaks and Bohemian Waxwings.  If you've never heard of any of these birds it's probably because they aren't found around here too often.  Putting your feeders out now and you may attract these once in decades visitors.

So what should you do if you see one of these species (or any species for that matter)?  Report it!  And how do you do that?  With eBird of course!  It allows you to record when and where you see different species and also lets you view other people's observations.  Check out this map of White-throated Sparrows seen in Louisville this year.  You can type in different species to see where they are being seen anywhere in the country.  The more people that report, the better the data becomes, which scientists use to track and monitor bird populations.  There is no doubt that eBird reports this winter will allow scientist to track the winter superflight like never before.

If you want to follow Louisville Naturally on Facebook just visit our page.  Happy birding.

Posted in: Common Redpoll,Red-breasted Nuthatch