On a recent warm and foggy Christmas bird count near Cook, the flocks of finches defied my previous experience. With an abundant crop of tamarack and spruce cones, finches had descended on the boggy western edges of the Lost Lake swamp in numbers I had never seen before.
Christmas bird counts in the North Country can be tedious affairs here in the North Country at times. In the depths of December, most birds have fled to warmer climes, leaving bird counters mostly to tally chickadees, ravens, blue jays, and red-breasted nuthatches. But there are often surprises that make the effort worthwhile, and this year it was the finches— flocks and flocks of them, most of which just filled the sky without being identified.
In some cases, my birding partner and I were able to get a clear enough look to identify the species. We counted 163 white-winged crossbills, a definite record for us considering that it was only the second year in the past five that we had even counted crossbills. Crossbills, both red and white-winged, are among the most unpredictable of the northern finches as they comb the northern forests in search of the best cone crops.
Our crossbill count was definitely a conservative one since in some cases we didn’t get a good enough look at some of the flying flocks of crossbills, which quickly disappeared in the fog, to determine their species. So, they simply went uncounted.
And crossbills weren’t the only finches taking advantage of the cone cornucopia. We ran into flocks of redpolls, pine siskins, and other flocks of these smaller finches that we never identified. Huge numbers of goldfinches have also descended on the area this winter, to take advantage of the cone crop as well. And while we didn’t see any on our bird count, my feeders located on the eastern edge of the Lost Lake swamp have been filled for weeks with dozens of purple finches in addition to goldfinches.
By contrast, the larger finches, like pine and evening grosbeaks, seem to have found better options this winter. These larger birds, which have shown up in limited numbers in our area, are less interested in the finer seeds of the tamarack and black spruce. But those small seeds are just right for the smaller finches, which use their fine, sharp beaks to extract seeds from between the scales of the cones. The crossbills, in particular, have adapted specifically to prying open these small cones in search of the nutritious seeds that lie within.
While we often may not think about it, an abundant cone crop can be an enormous source of high energy food that can attract huge numbers of the birds specifically adapted to exploiting this resource. When you think of the density of tamarack and black spruce in a typical mature bog stand, and figure one hundred cones in each tree (which is conservative in many cases), there could easily be over 100,000 cones per acre. That’s more than a million cones in just ten acres, which can perhaps give some explanation for the clouds of finches we watched the other day.
The finches are a highly successful family of birds, with about 235 species worldwide. They’re most often recognized by their short, stout beaks that are adapted for extracting and crushing seeds. Male finches tend to be colorful while the females are generally drab.
Because finches rely on seeds as their primary food source, they’re generally not migratory because seeds can typically be found throughout the year. As long as food is available, birds generally don’t migrate, since migration saps energy and makes birds more vulnerable to predators and other hazards.
The several species of what we typically refer to as “northern finches” here in North America, tend to move about more than most other finch species. That’s because the cone crops that these species rely on, tend to go from boom to bust in any given region from year-to-year. While most birds in North America move from north to south in winter, the northern finches move in any direction based on the availability of cones— and this year, the tamarack and spruce cones are abundant in much of our region so we’re seeing large numbers of the smaller finches in particular, which feed heavily on these smaller cones.
The northern finches as a group include both species of crossbills, redpolls, siskins, goldfinches, purple finches, and pine and evening grosbeaks.
If you’re heading out to the woods sometime soon, keep an eye out for some of these feathered travelers of the vast boreal forest. They’re definitely worth a look.