In my new neighborhood I have a pair of cardinals and a pair of bluejays. There are also a couple of black squirrels that sleep in a nest of leaves they built on my son’s windowsill after their mother left. I feed the squirrels because I’ve watched them since birth. I also throw out some sunflower seeds for the sparrows and pigeons who sit on the fire escape and coo or tweet at me when they get hungry. This week I saw the cardinals and bluejays joining the food line. I thought they went south for the season. I recently learned robins hang around all winter too. I know we’re on a recession but I didn’t realize the birds couldn’t afford to vacation either! Please tell me it isn’t so.
This has been a very warm winter. I’m not surprised some birds that would normally migrate haven’t done so this year That being said, NYC has very specific rules against feeding wildlife, especially pigeons. The animals tend to scavenge plenty out of the garbage and from plant life in the parks and aren’t in danger of starving so feeding them just means you are teaching them not to be afraid of people. I used to live in a building where one of the women who lived there fed the birds in our courtyard every day and it got to the point where if the pigeons saw you with food they could reach they would come and try to take it from you. Nothing quite as weird and scary as having your sandwich stolen by a pigeon!
I live in the frozen wilderness in Minnesota, and our blue jays and cardinals always stay through the winter, as do most of the woodpeckers (downy, hairy, and red-bellied). We’ve had some robins stay through the winter the past few years but not many. This has been such a warm summer that we’ve seen a few unusual birds at the feeder, including a house finch and, believe it or not, a bluebird. Usually we have a lot of juncoes in the winter, but this year I haven’t seen one. I’m assuming they’re able to find enough food with the lack of snow cover that they don’t need to risk coming near the house.
I think it’s cool that you’re feeding them. I know it’s sometimes frowned on in cities, but it’s nice to bring a little nature into your life.
Almost every day I’ve driven to school over the past month, I’ve had at least one cardinal try to splatter itself on my windshield. It always happens in the same area of CT also, though I’ve seen them in my town in MA too. I had never seen a cardinal before the first one tried to commit suicide by Jeep.
I’ve seen blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers throughout the past two winters in da Bronx. Lots of them in Riverdale Park.
We’ve always had juncoes, blue jays, cardinals, and a lot of miscellaneous other birds, at our feeder every winter, here in upstate NY.
This year has been very quiet, bird-wise, they are finding food other than at the feeders. We haven’t seen many birds unless it starts to rain hard or snow, and then we are swamped. Just this week, a flock of cardinals has taken to hanging around the sunflower feeder, a wonderful sight! Almost every day I hear blue jays calling, I throw a handful of peanuts out on the deck and they go nuts, so to speak.
I’d never seen so many cardinals and blue jays until we started putting out the sunflower seeds and peanuts. Heard them plenty, glimpsed them occasionally.
You know about the NYC hawks, right?
They feed the pigeons, I mean, feed on the pigeons.
Another Upstate New Yorker. The cardinals and bluejays do stay all winter – the red flash of cardinals is very pretty against a snowy background, and that’s why they appear on so many Christmas cards.
However, this abnormally warm winter is bringing some of the migratory birds back sooner. I’ve heard a lot of birdsong in the trees the last few days, and it seems weeks too soon.
According to The Old Farmers Almanac, Valentine’s Day is, in folklore, the day birds begin the mating season, accounting for the start of early morning birdsong even when it’s snowing. I’ve noticed it in past years myself. Though this crazy winter is probably messing things up with migration and their traditional territorial range, too.
My “duh” moment of the century:
“Mom, why don’t the birds here fly south for the winter?”
“We ARE the south.” :smack:
Well, here in Florida spring migration has just started-saw my first Yellow Warbler of the spring today, and found a Red-Tailed Hawk nest as well.
Birds don’t care all that much about cold. Unless it’s a tropical type bird, as long as it has enough food, birds simply find a little hole to crawl into and fluff up their feathers. They stay nice and warm that way.