WILLIAMSVILLE — During the winter months, it is not uncommon to hear the question, “Where are all the birds?”
A flip answer would be, “They've gone south.” Which they have.
Most of the birds that fill our landscapes during the summer are tropical birds which return to the tropics in Central and South America during our winter months. Most of the warblers, vireos, thrushes, and flycatchers fall into this category.
Many other birds move to the milder climate of the southern states. These species include waterfowl, wading birds, and raptors, plus some of the hardy songbirds.
On the other hand, boreal species from the north also move south, driven by changes in the weather, but also - and probably more importantly - by the availability of food in their northern homes.
Food availability means that some winters they more or less stay home, while other winters they irrupt (migrate en masse) southward. When there is an irruption, we might notice their numbers. When they stay home, we may ask that question about where they are.
As we watch our feeders or wander about on our skis or snowshoes during winter months, it often seems as though we are seeing very few birds compared to the numbers that we remember seeing in other years.
For example, two years ago during the holidays, my feeders were inundated with northern birds. Flocks of Common Redpolls and mixed flocks of Evening Grosbeaks and redpolls descended in swarms. I was filling my bulk feeders twice a day.
So far this year, my feeders have been visited by a small flocks of 15 redpolls, while the grosbeaks have been completely absent.
In October, flocks of 200-plus Pine Siskins swarmed about my feeders. During December, they have been absent.
Where are they? Undoubtedly, they have gone farther south, in spite of the dependable food source at my feeders.
That's because birds do not simply rely on bird feeders, but, in fact, derive most of their food most of the time from naturally occurring food sources.
If those sources do not seem adequate, they move on.
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Two citizen science projects provide a snapshot of where the birds are during the winter.
One is the Great Backyard Bird Count. This is primarily a feeder count conducted on the Presidents' Day weekend in February. To learn how you can participate (in the comfort of your home), visit www.birdsource.org/gbbc.
The second is the Christmas Bird Count. In its 113th year, the CBC engages more than 60,000 people in approximately 2,500 locations, including several in southeastern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire.
I participate in the Brattleboro Area CBC on the third Saturday in December, so that is the one I can write about.
So here is a snapshot of where the birds are around Brattleboro, as observed on Dec. 15.
Many participants returned from their day of counting speaking of how hard it was to find birds and how low the numbers were.
But when the counts were tallied, the number of birds counted (4,100) was slightly above the 10-year average (3,900).
With open water in the Connecticut and West Rivers, waterfowl were well represented by Canada Goose, Mallard, and American Black Duck. Most significant was the number of Hooded Mergansers.
Consistently present on the count, the “hoodies” were tallied at 138, a number five times greater than in any previous year.
The winter finches and boreal species showed no consistency as a group.
The American Goldfinch was hard to find and the count was the lowest in the last 15 years. Pine Siskin, so abundant in October, was absent. Evening Grosbeak, consistently present the last 11 years, was absent. There are usually a few Purple Finches in December; not this year.
On the other hand, Pine Grosbeaks appear every five to six years. This was their year.
Common Redpolls show a consistent pattern of being present every other year. This was the year they were expected, and they did not disappoint; counters tabulated the largest number of redpolls (almost 300) in recent years.
Sparrows were hard to find, but the winter sparrows, American Tree Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco were within their expected numbers, along with small numbers of Song and White-throated Sparrows.
The Red-bellied Woodpecker, which first nested in Vermont in Brattleboro in 2001, continued its steady population increase.
Blue Jay and American Crow had their smallest numbers in years. Putney Mountain Hawk Watch counts migrating Blue Jays (when not counting hawks); they counted hundreds of jays. Apparently, the Blue Jays kept on moving, because they were difficult to find in the Brattleboro area.
Other common feeder birds were present in average or above average numbers: Black-capped Chickadee (up), White-breasted Nuthatch (up), Downy Woodpecker (down slightly), Tufted Titmouse and Northern Cardinal (steady).
Some species are seen in flocks and may be very localized.
Horned Larks were in Vernon (180). Eastern Bluebirds were mostly in Dummerston (59, versus the 10-year average of 25). American Robins were scattered, but with a large flock in an old Dummerston orchard (total 244 versus the 10-year average of 44). Only one small flock of Cedar Waxwings (31) was found around Sunset Lake.
There are always a few birds that should have migrated but have not. We recorded this year a Red-shouldered Hawk and a Common Yellowthroat (a first CBC record for Brattleboro).
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If you are worried about a lack of birds at the bird feeders, I say, “Don't be.”
The CBC suggests that the birds are still around. Except when humans really screw up the environment, the birds are resilient and adaptable. Their population numbers go through regular and natural fluctuations. Once the counters on a CBC thaw out and examine the count numbers, this is confirmed (for most species) year after year.
Stay warm, and if the birds don't come to your feeders, go out and look for them.
Good birding!