Winter Is The Time To Feed The Birds Study Shows Mild Winters May Keep Birds Away From The Backyard Feeder
Experts are trying to figure out why so many birds didn’t show up at Eastern feeders last year.
Many birds, however, showed up at feeders in the West.
The reduced number of birds in the East may have been due to the mild winter, compared with the harsh winter of 1993-94, said Kenneth V. Rosenberg, senior scientist in population studies at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, which conducts an annual bird population study based on observations at feeders.
“Several lines of investigation indicate that some non-migrating species are not declining - they’re merely ignoring feeders when mild Northern winters allow them to find natural food,” Rosenberg said.
Evidence supporting that theory comes from the Christmas Bird County in Ithaca, N.Y., which is typical of Northern regions, Rosenberg said. Participants there counted these species in their natural habitats and recorded the highest numbers ever, despite the apparent decline in bird numbers at Northern feeders.
Of the 25 most widely distributed species, only the robin showed a sizable increase, 14 percent, in feeder appearances.
The laboratory’s FeederWatch program drew 12,000 participants last year. Each volunteer watches a feeder - it could be the one that’s been in the yard for years - once every two weeks from November through March. They record the kinds and numbers of birds they see on forms and send the forms to the lab for analysis.
Rosenberg said he drew several conclusions from this year’s data:
Birds don’t necessarily move to winter feeding grounds. Finches, redpolls and nuthatches moved southward in 1993-94 in search of food. FeederWatchers in Alaska recorded many more redpolls in 1994-95 than during the previous year.
Pine siskins are returning to Western Washington, Nevada and Colorado after a Salmonella outbreak in 1993 that caused the near-disappearance of the species from the West Coast.
House finches, which are declining in the East in part because of an outbreak of conjunctivitis, are expanding their range to the north and west, showing up in greater numbers from Maine to Arkansas and North Dakota.
xxxx FEEDER PATRONS Following are the bird species most commonly recorded at backyard bird feeders throughout the United States, according to Cornell University’s FeederWatch program. Species Percent of feeders reporting sightings 1. Dark-eyed junco 81 percent 2. House finch 68 percent 3. American goldfinch 67 percent 4. Blue jay 66 percent 5. Downy woodpecker 64 percent 6. Mourning dove 63 percent 7. House sparrow 61 percent 8. Black-capped chickadee 59 percent 9. Northern cardinal 60 percent 10. American robin 51 percent