This year Cedar Ridge and by the reports, most of Minnesota has been invaded by huge numbers of Pine Siskins and the Common Redpolls. We started seeing them on December 29, 2008, when a few arrived at our bird feeders. Each day the numbers of the Common Redpolls have been increasing. March 9th, we were visiting friends at Tait Lake and we witnessed hundreds of Common Redpolls feeding in their yard. There were so many, it looked like an out of control ant hill.
"Red"
In a previous post, I mentioned hanging a bird feeder on my trail in the Superior National Forest. In the last few weeks, I have had a Common Redpoll meet me on the trail to the feeder. When he sees me coming, he lands in a moose maple and waits for the chickadees to "break the ice". The chickadees immediately land in my hand for a seed and "Red", the Common Redpoll, follows suit. Unlike the chickadees who land, grab a seed and take off. "Red" sits in my hand and rotates the hulled sunflower seed in his beak until it is pulverized. Defending his territory with loud chirping when the chickadees attempt to land. He is feisty to be sure, but when "Norris" my Red-breasted Nuthatch friend arrives on the scene, he quickly departs to a nearby branch. None of the "small" birds mess with the crazed nuthatch who is certainly, "King of the Big Cedars."
The Common Redpoll is a tiny finch, he measures 5-6 inches in length. He has a conical bill with a black chin and a red "dollop" on his forehead. The male has a pink chest and the female is without pink and is heavily streaked in shades of brown and tan. The male's pink shading varies from a very light pink to a glowing red. They are striking little birds, especially when perched on newly fallen snow.
Common Redpolls are interesting to observe because of their erratic behavior. They really follow the leader when it comes to their ravenous eating habits. One redpoll will fly in to the food source and immediately the whole flock will descend to the feeding area. They will eat for sometime if they are undisturbed. When they have picked over the area, they will fly to a protected tree, like a white cedar or spruce. There, they will eat and swallow the seeds they stored in throat pouches. This way, on cold winter days, they can stay warm and enjoy their meal in relative safety.
Hoary Redpoll
An unique "off shoot" of the Common Redpoll is the Hoary Redpoll. He is a long range visitor of the high Arctic and is an uncommon visitor to northern, North America. They breed in the tundra and there are two subspecies; the southern and the Greenland. We were fortunate to see one of the subspecies of the Hoary at Tait Lake. It was not too difficult to distinguish him from the Common Redpoll, because of his frosty, white feathers. He has a white rump and is white under tail; plus he is a tad larger. The one we observed almost glowed amongst the hundreds of Common Redpolls we watched feeding.
Being an "observer" and not a bird expert, I have read accounts on the Pine Siskin and Common Redpoll invasions from New Brunswick, Canada to northern Illinois. Why? I am not sure, but when the bird counts and wrap ups are done in the spring, I am sure we will have a variety of opinions from the bird experts. Until then, we on Cedar Ridge will enjoy the color and brightness they bring to us each day.
"In all things of nature
there is something of the
marvelous." ~ Aristotle
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