Page 20 - Harnett Life Winter 2020

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Winter Bird Watching 101

By Crissy Neville

Winter is here and with it comes the birds. Our feathered In other words, if you see these northern visitors in your back-
friends play backup in the orchestra that is our daily lives — yard this winter, it’s because they are hungry.
ubiquitously whistling as we work and play, singing in good
times and bad, and currently, harmonizing away the humdrum The leading organization of all-things-bird, Audubon, reports
of the winter landscape. Every few winters, the Southeast gets the 2020-21 winter as witnessing the largest irruption of north-
a bonus of birds in what it termed an “irruption year.” Bird- ern finches in recent history. The southward search for food
watchers across North Carolina — Harnett and Robeson coun- has affected all kinds of finches like common and hoary red-
ties included — are the benefactors of this natural phenom- polls, evening grosbeaks, pine grosbeaks, pine siskins, red and
enon. white-winged crossbills and purple finches. Other than the
finch, other irruptive passerines like blue jays, bohemian wax-
According to North Carolina Birding Trail Assistant Paula wings and red-breasted nuthatches have also been on the move.
Mandarino, “irruption” is when a species of birds that nor- A passerine is any bird of the order Passeriformes, which in-
mally migrates just a short distance moves farther south due cludes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as
to changes in available resources in their usual wintering spot. perching birds or songbirds, passerines are distinguished from
This causes much higher counts of affected species farther other orders of birds by the arrangement of their toes, which
south. Less food and habitat for certain bird species in Can- allow them to perch.
ada has caused a large increase in these species here in North
Carolina this winter. You may see more pine siskins and red- Irruptions are birds’ response to the shortage in the food cycle
breasted nuthatches at these sites during this time, and you on which they depend — patterns that resemble feast or fam-
may even get to spot certain rare birds for the state, including ine. Many boreal trees supply an abundance of seeds in feast
evening grosbeak and red crossbill.” years and starvation rations in others. Birds depend on these
trees and move in response to their biological cycles, staying

Page 20 Harnett Life ~ Winter 2020