Have you ever looked out at your snowy yard at night and wondered where all of the cardinals and chickadees go? You are not the only one. Their answer might surprise you. It is almost never the cozy nest you are picturing.
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People often misunderstand what bird nests are for. They think they're just bedrooms for sleeping when in fact, nests are like nurseries, built solely to care for young birds. Most songbirds build nests only for the purpose of raising young during the breeding season, then they completely leave the nests once the chicks have fledged. By winter, the woven nests are empty and decaying, and from months of use are full of parasites and other pests.
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Your yard may have housed some bird nests over the summer, but come December, those birds will not be returning. Most nests will support eggs and some chicks, but they will not protect the adult birds from the wind or the cold. A nest in a tree is one of the most exposed and coldest places a bird could go on a cold dark night. For these reasons, survival in winter requires birds to find locations that will help them huddle, stay hidden from predators, and give them shelter from the wind and capture their body heat to survive the predators during the long nights.
That is why robin will not be seen in last spring's nests because of the violently dropping temperatures. Birds have undergone better adaptations for surviving icy nights, and those strategies occur all around your yard, frequently completely concealed.
Gezellige winterverblijven: boomholtes, naaldbomen en geheime plekjes
Where do birds go to sleep when it’s 10 degrees? While there isn’t one clear answer, the type of birds in your backyard most likely use a small number of important roosting locations that provide needed protection from wind and the cold.
Holes in trees are the best forms of winter roosting. They create insulated chambers and can be a lot warmer than outside air. These cavities are used by woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, and woodpeckers themselves. It is not unusual for these birds to pack in cavities on freezing nights. A single cavity may even hold a dozen bluebirds, who rudely, shoulder to shoulder, huddle together to share warmth.
Dense evergreens, particularly spruces, pines, and cedars, provide another important refuge. Their thick, layered branches intercept the wind and create still pockets of air that trap warmth. The \\"warm\\" air pockets help cardinals, sparrows, juncos, and finches to shelter deeply within the conifers, closer to the trunk where the needle density is highest. The temperature difference between an exposed branch and the interior of a dense spruce can be several degrees, which is a matter of life and death on a bitter night.
Brush piles and thickets give the same sort of shelter to ground-loving species. Wrens, towhees, and sparrows make their homes in the tangle of undergrowth, dead branches, and brambles that shelter them in a maze of twigs and leaves. While this shelter might not look pretty, it's an effective windbreak as well as providing protection from owls and other night-time predators.
Roost boxes are unique birdhouses that include perches and ventilated holes. These birdhouses are gaining traction because of their innovative functionality. Roost boxes differ from standard nest boxes because they allow for more than one bird to grab a perch and roost together. On particularly cold nights, bluebirds, chickadees, and even screech owls will pack into these boxes and can number in the dozens.
Buildings such as barns, sheds, eaves, and other humanmade structures also invite roosting birds. Swallows, phoebes, and house sparrows often seek the shelter of protected building corners.
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The shelter is only part of what birds need to survive. Birds posses incredible physical adaptations that allow thme to survive ten nights that would be deadly to other animals that would be unprepared.
When it comes to their first defense against the cold, birds will steadily fluff their feathers to create little pockets of air that hold warm air near their bodies. A good example of this is a chickadee. When it fluffs its feathers, it morphs itself into a nice round ball of insulating feathers, almost doubling its size. Those created air pockets act like insulation in a sleeping bag to hold onto the warmth generated by the chickadee's elevated metabolism.
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Protecting sensitive body parts is just as necessary. Birds pull up one leg into their belly feathers and tuck their bill under either a wing or shoulder feathers to minimize heat loss from exposed surfaces. Cardinals and sparrows can be seen a lot standing on one leg during cold morning. In fact, they have been standing that way overnight.
There’s strength in numbers, and the same goes for warmth. A shared microclimate, warmer than any one bird can maintain, forms in the cavity where dozens of bluebirds or cluster of chickadees huddle in. When they all huddle together, the microclimate forms from the shared heat of all the birds. This type of communal roosting helps many species survive hypothermia while in the harsh winter weather.
Birds build fat reserves to give them fuel to burn up overnight. With the short days of winter they will feed like frenzy to get the amount of fat that will support their metabolism for the entire 15 hour night. A single day, a chickadee can store fat that is equivalent to 10 percent of their body weight, then burn all of that fat by dawn just to survive.
Some species even experience an energy saving state known as regulated hypothermia, where they purposefully lower their body temperature by several degrees. It such a potentially lethal process to undergo.
Did You Know?
Every winter, a Black-capped Chickadee enters a state of hibernation every night. During this time, they can drop their body temperature by a whopping 22 degrees. From 108 F (which is their normal body temperature) to 86 F.
Ways to Help Birds in Your Backyard Survive Cold Nights
The positive aspect is that with a little extra consideration, a few specific changes can transform your garden into a winter survival haven.
Tree and shrub evergreens provide year-round shelter for birds and shelter for several birds, even a single spruce or dense juniper. If you are planning your landscape, consider incorporating some native conifers that will provide cover for birds year-round.
Let brush piles and dead branches stay. They are not messy, they are habitat. Neatly stack brush piles in an out of the way corner of your yard to provide immediate roosting structure.
Install roost boxes. These can be easily purchased or constructed, and they are utilized a lot during cold nights. Make sure to place them in a sheltered area, and if possible, facing away from the prevailing winds.
Keeping bird feeders fully stocked helps provide birds with enough energy to survive the freezing overnight temperatures. Birds eat a lot of food before nightfall to build fat stores to burn overnight. Offered a variety of high energy food, birds will fill their bellies to prepare for the night. Good options include suet, black oil sunflower seeds and peanuts.
Provide water for drinking. During winter months dehydration continues to be a risk for birds. A heated birdbath works wonders during freezing temperatures.
Dead trees (if they are safe) are important as are older shrubs with cavities. Before removing anything, think about what birds may be utilizing it.
Every little thing helps! Your brush pile, your evergreen, and your future roost box are going to help birds survive winter's long and cold nights. And in the morning, when the cardinals and chickadees return to your feeder, you'll know your efforts helped keep them alive.
Happy birding!
Pro Tip
By placing suet feeders on the southern or southeastern part of a tree trunk, birds will have warmer feeding places as they will get direct sunlight and wind breaks from the northwestern winds.
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