However, it is able to feed on many berries when ants are scarce. Favorites are beech, black gum, blueberry, cherry, Virginia creeper, flowering dogwood, hackberry, magnolia, poison ivy, poison sumac, grape, greenbrier and flowering dogwood.
The first spring bird that feeds on flying insects is the phoebe, which arrived in mid-March. The next bird that feeds on flying insects is the tree swallow, which comes about now. All of these insect-eating birds that come early in the season are able to eat berries. Thus they can survive if the weather is cool when insects are not yet active.
While juncos have been in Central New York throughout the winter, some of them will stay here to breed while others go into Canada. Most of those that breed in Canada migrated to our Southern states. About now they start north, and as they pass through, we should see an increase in juncos here in the next two weeks. Then the numbers decrease here again as most of those that wintered here will have gone on to their breeding grounds in Canada.
As for a junco seen around here, it may have been here all year and never migrated at all. It may have been south for the winter and came back here for the summer. It may have been south for the winter and is passing through Central New York to breed in Canada.
By the middle of April, we can expect to see the bank swallow, the barn swallow and the purple martin.
Benjamin P. Burtt writes about birds every other week for Stars. Write to him in care of Stars Magazine, P.O. Box 4915, Syracuse, NY 13221; or firstname.lastname@example.org (put "birds" in the subject field).