There’s an irruption going on this winter in the world of nature – and you might even be able to witness it in your own backyard.
I’m not talking about a volcanic eruption, but rather an irruption of birds, and it’s not an Alfred Hitchcock experience. It’s a gift from the north, as songbirds such as evening grosbeaks, crossbills, red-breasted nuthatches and pine siskins have been flying south to find food.
This winter, pine siskins are staging one of their largest invasions recorded in the nation. This diminutive, streaked bird about the size of a goldfinch, with various degrees of yellow on its wings, eats conifer seeds in the Canadian boreal forest where it breeds and lives year-round.
When pine cone crops crash, however, the birds have to seek sustenance elsewhere. So they fly south, visiting evergreens for cones, and also backyard feeding stations for thistle seed. Pine siskins make an appearance in good numbers in northern Illinois during winter typically every other year. But this year, the conifer seed production in the boreal forest is extremely low, so a great deal more of the nomadic birds have flown south.
Recently, pine siskins joined American goldfinches feasting on two thistle feeders in our back yard. Every perch was occupied, and about 100 more siskins were on the ground below the feeders picking up fallen food. The huge flock is gone, but some siskins are still around at other feeders as well as in natural areas. On a visit to Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda, we heard and saw dozens upon dozens of pine siskins flying over trees and dipping in to eat seeds from pines, spruces and alder trees.
If you’re lucky, you might see a common redpoll at a thistle feeder or out in the wild. These birds are the same size as siskins, but they have a reddish cap and blackish throat. They also eat pine seeds, as well as those of birch and alder. One winter, we had dozens of redpolls at our thistle feeders, but we haven’t seen many of the sporadic visitors in our backyard since.
This year, we are being treated to views of three red-breasted nuthatches at our peanut feeders. Their larger cousins, the white-breasted nuthatch, visit feeders and live in northern Illinois year-round. The white-breasted is decked with a deep blue neck and head, softer blue back and white belly. The red-breasted has a black cap and black eye stripe, soft blue back, white throat and reddish-orange breast. These delightful birds show up one year in winter, then not the next, and then again another year. They give calls like someone playing a toy tin horn as they probe conifers for food. They love shelled peanuts and spend a great deal of their time in winter snatching them from a feeder, eating them or burying them for another day.
Several other rarer winter visitors have been spotted in the northern Illinois region this year. One of them is the red crossbill, another is the white-winged crossbill. Both have reddish orange bodies, but the white-winged has, as its name implies, two white wing bars on dark wings. Both have noticeably crossed bills that allow them to pry open cones from evergreens, including pines and spruces. Red crossbills make loud “kip, kip, kip” calls as they fly in small groups over the tops of evergreens looking for cones. The red crossbill has been seen at Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda and white-winged crossbills have been spotted at Illinois Beach State Park in Zion and Lyons Woods Forest Preserve in Waukegan at the end of November. Places with lots of pines and spruces that have many cones attract these birds. A good spot annually to look for them is at the Morton Arboretum farther afield in Lisle.
This year, a winter visitor that hasn’t been seen much in Illinois in recent years, has descended on local bird feeders filled with sunflower hearts and unshelled sunflower oilers. The evening grosbeak looks like a giant male goldfinch, with similar colors but a much larger bill. Evening grosbeaks, which also live and breed up north, sometimes make erratic movements south into the continental United States.
They breed in spruce-fir, pine-oak forests of northern America and leave the region when food is scarce. Evening grosbeaks have found bird feeders in the north woods to help keep them supplied with energy in the winter, but sometimes they fly farther south looking for food. Folks have seen them this year at Lakewood Forest Preserve, as well as at Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve near Highwood, and also at backyard feeders.
I’ve only seen an evening grosbeak once in Illinois, and that was at my sunflower feeder in my back yard a few decades ago.
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The winter cycles of songbirds from the north are fascinating. Scientists have been learning more about their behaviors and whether climate change is affecting their movements and food availability.
What I know for certain is that on a cold winter day, when a red-breasted nuthatch gives its “yank, yank, yank” call from my Norway spruce and then lands on the peanut feeder for a meal, life seems just a little cheerier, a little warmer.
Sheryl DeVore has worked as a full-time and freelance reporter, editor and photographer for the baiduhai and its subsidiaries. She’s the author of several books on nature and the environment. Send story ideas and thoughts to [email protected]