Nature Bulletin No. 704-A   February 10, 1979
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W, Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:WINTER BIRDS FROM CANADA IN CHICAGOLAND

Feeding and watching birds in winter is a pastime or even a hobby 
enjoyed by thousands of people who make no pretense of being 
ornithologists. They have fun and learn a lot about birds. They learn 
how one kind differs from the others -- in habits as well as in 
appearance -- and that a bird may differ noticeably, in temperament or 
even in plumage, from others of the same species.

One of the fascinations in feeding winter birds is that each year is 
different from the previous one and it frequently evokes some 
surprises. There are varying numbers of the usual visitors -- bluejays, 
downy woodpeckers, cardinals, juncos, chickadees, etc. -- but some 
winters you may have "aberrants": one or more holdovers of kinds that 
normally migrate southward in autumn -- such as the mourning dove, 
flicker, Carolina wren, towhee and brown thrasher.

And then there may be a winter when you see a flock of cedar 
waxwings, perhaps including a few Bohemian waxwings. Next year 
there are none of those but maybe an abundance of evening grosbeaks, 
or of purple finches, or of pine siskins.

Such irregular migrations, called irruptions, have never been 
satisfactorily explained. They are mostly peculiar to a few species of 
colorful birds that breed in the coniferous forests of Canada and 
Alaska -- members of the largest of all bird families which includes 
the grosbeaks, buntings, finches and sparrows. In addition to the 
evening grosbeak and the pine grosbeak described in bulletin No. 668-
A, there are five species that also visit the Chicago region irregularly.

The Purple Finch is a sparrow-like bird that is not purple. The male is 
rosy-red, brightest on the head and rump, as if he had been dipped in 
raspberry wine. The female is brownish, heavily streaked, with a broad 
whitish line over the eye and, like most of her cousins, smaller than 
the male. Purple finches are seen here during most winters and 
sometimes in considerable numbers. They come readily to feeding 
boards where sunflower, hemp and millet seeds are available.

Another species frequently seen here is the little Pine Siskin. In 
coloring, size and actions it resembles the common goldfinch to which 
it is closely related. They tend to fly in flocks, undulating like the 
goldfinches and changing directions in unison. In summer they feed 
largely on fruits and insects, especially plant lice, but in winter -- like 
the other birds we are talking about -- they are seed eaters.

Redpolls, which make their summer homes in the far north of both 
hemispheres, wander southward in autumn but, although numbers of 
them were seen here during the winter of 1961-62 and in 1959-60, 
only a few were observed this year. Redpolls look like fluffy little 
sparrows, streaked with brown, except that they have bright red caps 
on their foreheads, black chins, and the male has a pinkish breast. 
They are friendly seed-eaters that sometimes flutter onto a feeding 
board like falling leaves.

Most distinctive of our occasional winter visitors are the crossbills. 
They have scissor-like bills with the upper mandible curved and 
crossing downward over the lower one. Peculiarly adapted for 
extracting seeds from the cones of pines, spruces and other cone-
bearing trees, those bills and their feet are used in clambering about 
like little parrots.

The male Red Crossbill is brick red -- a unique color -- with a dusky 
tail and dusky wings without any wing bars. The female is olive gray, 
with a yellowish rump and underparts. The male White-winged 
Crossbill is rosy pink with a black tail and two broad white bars on his 
black wings. Curing the Audubon Christmas bird census, red crossbills 
are occasionally observed at Morton Arboretum. The white-winged 
crossbills are seldom seen here.