Northern birds seek fatter days in Ohio
Driving winds and brutal weather associated with superstorm Sandy apparently pushed unprecedented numbers of oceangoing birds into Lake Erie. Observers from Huron to Ashtabula reported huge numbers of sea ducks, including scoters and several probable eiders. Most remarkable were almost 400 brant, a small sea goose that is rarely seen in Ohio.
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If you feed birds, chances are you’ll be seeing some unusual visitors this winter. Huge numbers of songbirds called “boreal irruptives” are moving south into Ohio.
The vast boreal forest blankets about 2.3 million square miles of Canada, Alaska and upper parts of the lower 48. This distinctive forest has fir, spruce, tamarack, cedar, birch and other species of cold climates. Boreal trees, especially the conifers, have cyclical seed crops. In some years, there is an abundance of cones; in lean years, few cones are produced.
If you’re a bird that specializes in feeding upon spruce or fir cones, or birch catkins, life in the north woods becomes tough during lean winters. What to do? Flee south. Large numbers of some species whose fortunes are intimately tied to tree fruit production exit the boreal forest and move south to states such as Ohio in lean years. Such mass exoduses are called irruptions, hence the term boreal irruptive for these species.
Eleven species of boreal irruptive songbirds have been known to invade Ohio, although a few of them are extremely rare visitors. Others are far more regular, but their numbers vary wildly from winter to winter. In a boom year, some boreal irruptives are seemingly everywhere, and you’re even likely to see them at the feeders.
At the top of the list this fall is a little finch called a pine siskin. Siskins are closely related to American goldfinches and resemble them in appearance. But siskins are heavily striped with blurry streaking, and have tinges of gold in the wings and tail. Like goldfinches, siskins have a fondness for thistle feeders and get right in there and mix it up with their yellower brethren. Favored backyard feeding operations sometimes have scads of pine siskins pay extended visits, especially if there are numerous conifers in the area. When a siskin horde invades, expect your thistle seed bill to spike sharply, as these tiny feathered piglets can quickly suck down gallons of seed. Pine siskins are seemingly everywhere of late.
Another likely out-of-town visitor is the red-breasted nuthatch. Nuthatches are bark creepers, deftly gamboling along trunks and branches in the manner of a woodpecker. But nuthatches take the road less traveled and will often descend a tree headfirst. Thus they spot all of the goodies that the strictly upwardly mobile woodpeckers miss. Nuthatches are especially smitten with suet, and slapping up a cake of the fatty stuff is a surefire way to lure them. If you go the suet route, you’re also apt to get white-breasted nuthatches — our common year-round residents. Red-breasted nuthatches are comparatively elfin, have a line through the eye and are washed with cinnamon-red below. Big numbers of red-breasted nuthatches have been turning up throughout Ohio.
Other possible but less likely boreal visitors to the feeders include red crossbill, purple finch, common redpoll and evening grosbeak. These species are also moving south in decent numbers, and all have been spotted recently in Ohio.
Keep those feeders full, and let me know if you host any boreal irruptives.
Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first and third Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.