Winter Birds

Winter Birds Myths and Facts

Do birds get cold?

When it comes to winter birds, it seems there are even more myths than usual. Some people worry birds will freeze on cold nights or in bird baths.

Myth: Birds will freeze to death when temperatures drop below zero.

Fact:

Birds are well equipped to survive the coldest of temperatures. They store fat during the short days of winter to keep themselves warm during the long nights. During those freezing nights, they fluff their feathers to trap heat and slow their metabolism to conserve energy. They also look for good places to roost, whether it’s a birdhouse, natural tree cavity, grass thicket, evergreen or shrub.

Myth: Robins always fly south for winter.

Fact:

If there is sufficient food on their breeding grounds, American robins, bluebirds, and a host of finches and owls remain in the area where they spent the summer. As these birds often eat insects, they will instead forage among tree bark for overwintering bugs rather than on the frozen ground.

Myth: You should remove birdhouses in winter because birds don’t use them and other creatures will move in.

Fact:

Quite the opposite. A birdhouse makes a great roosting house in winter. Eastern bluebirds will pile into houses to spend cold nights.

Myth: If you leave town, the birds that rely on your feeders will die.

Fact:

Research has proven this one wrong. Scientists have shown that chickadees will eat only 25% of their daily winter food from feeders. They find the other 75% in the wild. In addition, with so many people feeding them these days, birds in your yard will simply fly to a nearby neighbor to get their food until you return home.

Myth: Birds’ feet will stick to metal bird feeders and suet cages.

Fact:

Most suet cages have a laminated covering, so you don’t have to worry about birds’ feet sticking to it. Their feet can endure cold weather. Birds have a protective scale-like covering on their feet, and special veins and arteries that keep their feet warm.

Myth: Woodpeckers peck on house siding in winter for food or to creat nesting cavities.

Fact:

All the pecking in late winter is done to make a noise to court mates. This is their way of singing a song to declare territory. There may be some cases where woodpeckers find food in wood siding.

Myth: If you have water in a birdbath when the temperature is below freezing, birds will freeze to death from wet feathers.

Fact:

Birds will drink from a heated birdbath, but if the temperature is well below freezing, they will not bathe in it and get their feathers wet.

Myth: All hummingbirds migrate south for winter.

Fact:

Though most hummingbird species in North America do migrate south for the winter, the Anna’s hummingbird remains on its West Coast breeding grounds.

Myth: Birds always migrate in flocks.

Fact:

Though many birds migrate in flocks – common nighhawks, American robins, swallows and European starlings – other species migrate alone. Amazingly, the juvenile hummingbird migrates on its own even though it has never migrated beforre. It seems it knows when to fly, where to fly, how far to fly and when to stop.

Myth: Migration means north in the spring and south in the winter.

Fact:

Some bird species migrate to higher elevations in the spring and down to lower elevations in the winter. Examples include rosy finches.

Myth: American goldfinches are bright yellow year-round.

Fact:

As falls approaches, American goldfinches lose their bright-yellow plumages, replacing them with feathers that are a dull, brownish-green.

Myth: Peanut butter will get stuck in birds’ throats, and they will choke.

Fact:

Peanut butter is a very nourishing food for birds, expecially in winter when the production of fat is important to their survival. Peanut butter does not get stuck in their throats.