Birds have to adapt to brutal winter conditions. Summer offerings for birds like buzzing insects, berries, and grass seeds go away. Knowing how harsh winters are makes feeders and plants spark to life in the winter. The food is critical to the birds survival and the habitat is a sanctuary during the winter.
Bring Hummingbirds Right To Your Window!
Check PriceSave this article for later so you don't lose it. Enter your email and I'll send it to you now—plus you'll get my favorite backyard birding tips delivered to your inbox.
What Does Winter Do to Natural Food Sources
Cold weather creates an altogether different set of challenges which impacts the food supply for birds. Depending on the species, the breeding season and food supply affects the number of available adult insects. Many adult insects die off, and larvae burrow deep into soil or wood. The result is birds cannot reach them. In addition, the protein-rich caterpillars which once fueled growth of the nestlings in spring are absent.
Another significant hindrance is the cover of snow. Snow blankets the ground and covers seeds, nuts, and berries that birds depend on. It only takes a few inches of snow cover to make food inaccessible. Dormant vegetation halts the production of seeds, and many berries that persist into early winter eventually get eaten, rot, or freeze and become inedible.
The result is significant. A landscape that had dozens of feeding opportunities in summer may offer only a few reliable food sources in January. This shortage of food can make birds travel and look for food. When the search for food is more than the food available, the body works even more to find food. This is exactly when the body requires maximum food so that the body can be kept warm when the nights are long and cold.
How Do Birds Change Their Food Habits When Natural Food Sources Are In Short Supply?
The winter season shows some amazing survival tricks by the birds. Birds are some of the most adaptable creatures in the world. The birds that eat insects during the summer months switch to eating nuts and seeds during the winter. There are many nuts and seeds that are in hard shells and are tough to get the food from. Females of the species called chickadees are the ones that are very good at getting the food out of the hard shell of the nut or seed.
A lot of avian species alter the places they search for food as well as how they do this. For example, woodpeckers increase the time they spend excavating tree bark to find beetle larvae and insect eggs that they can eat during the winter. Nuthatches search tree trunks in an unusual manner, working in the crevices that other birds don't bother with. Some species that foraged in the upper canopy in summer change to foraging near the ground in winter, where they explore brush piles and decaying wood.
The ability to be flexible with what you eat becomes important for survival. The cardinals and sparrows that had different options for food in the summer now have to be more selective. They look for the most high-energy foods that they can find, which are mostly high fat seeds. Blue jays hide acorns in the fall and then spend the winter going back to those places to collect the acorns. This shows that blue jays have very good spatial memory for a long time, even several months.
Some birds completely relocate their habitats, migrating to suburban areas that have warmer temperatures due to human activity, and where food supplies are more abundant. This is part of the behavioral variability in species that explains the sudden appearance of birds in your yard that you have not observed previously during the summer.
Get our free Hummingbird Attraction Guide! Plus, we'll send you our best tips for attracting more birds to your yard.
Food Sources for Wild Birds During Winter
Even with little available food, some natural foods last throughout the winter and become essential. Fruits from native plants, like winterberry, sumac, and dogwood, cling to their branches for the coldest months. The fruit can become more appealing after a freezing and thawing cycle which break down the compounds that made the fruit unappetizing. Cedar waxwings and robins target these foods and may arrive in large flocks to strip an entire bush.
Many species depend on tree seeds for food. Specialized beaks help crossbills and finches to retrieve seeds held in pine and spruce cones. Acorns are food for ducks, woodpeckers, jays, and other tree seed consumers. Catkins of birches and alders sway in the wind and provide some food to siskins and redpolls.
Larvae of certain insects are hidden in crevices of bark, where they can be located and consumed by species such as woodpeckers, creepers, and nuthatches. Accessing these food sources can be labor intensive, but when compared to the limited protein found in seeds, the pay off is worth the effort. A number of bird species also encounter hibernating spiders, as well as dormant insects and egg cases located in sheltered regions beneath loose bark and within the stems of dead plants.
These natural foods can be challenging because they are unpredictable. Oak acorns are abundant every few years. Berry crops depend on the weather and the insects that pollinate. Insects can be sealed under the bark after a heavy ice storm. Because of this unreliability, supplementary feeding is particularly valuable during the winter.
Reasons Your Backyard Turns Into An Important Winter Habitat
When natural food sources become scarce and unpredictable, your yard becomes vital habitat for birds. With food scarce in the wild, Your feeders become a reliable food source for birds. The energy birds save from not having to search for food in miles of frozen terrain improves their odds of survival.
Birds must conserve their energy and that is related to how cold it is outside. Cold nights cause birds to lose calories just to stay warm. Some birds, like the chickadee, can lose 10% of their body weight in a single night. Being able to find and eat good food during the day is critical. It can be the deciding factor between living through another cold night or dying.
Your yard can do so much more than serve as a space for bird feeders, especially after some thoughtful landscaping. If you add native shrubs that produce berries in the winter, you will add an additional food and shelter source to your yard. A brush pile can create a small microclimate for wind sheltered foraging. Evergreens will help provide additional roosting spots and the protection they provide will be helpful in reducing heat loss during extremely cold nights.
Your yard provides a water source when natural sources freeze solid. With the effort some of the birds have to go through to find water, a heated birdbath becomes a magnet for winter bird bath birds are. And your property helps birds survive until spring abundance returns by food, water and shelter.
Ways to Assist Winter Birds in Your Yard
Begin with foods that are high in fats and energy. These foods should meet winter nutrition requirements. Black oil sunflower seeds are a great all-around option. The shells of these seeds crack easily and the kernel has high calorie density. Suet offers essential fats that help birds with body heat maintenance. Peanuts provide woodpeckers, jays, and nuthatches protein and energy. These peanuts are especially important for those bird species.
Select feeder designs that prevent food from being covered in snow or ice. Tube feeders that have a cover can keep their seeds dry. Suet cages that are mounted on the eaves will stay open during heavy snowfalls. Platform feeders will require cleaning to avoid having wet and moldy seeds.
If you want to make sure that your shrubs benefit the birds that will need food during the winter, you should get plants that will produce berries during that time. Some great choices are serviceberry, winterberry, and viburnum. Once they are established, they will need very little maintenance. In addition to the berries that will sustain the birds in the winter, they will provide nesting sites and habitats for insects during the summer months.
Make sure there is always fresh water available. Regularly changing and cleaning the birdbath can help prevent the spread of disease but can be a little extra work. Keeping a birdbath heated can make a huge difference so you can either purchase a heated birdbath or add a heating element yourself.
Let your yard be a bit wild! Leaving the heads of perennial flowers over the winter provides finches and sparrows with seeds. Piles of brush create foraging and shelter. Dead trees, if safely placed, offer sites for woodpeckers to feed and roost within cavities.
With a little effort, you can help birds get through winter without needing any wilderness survival skills. You'll also get the satisfaction of seeing the birds up close, and, most importantly, you will be helping them get through the hardships of the season. Happy birding!
