Finch

The Winter Finch Forecast is out.  Based on the abundance of winter food availability in Canada, the forecast predicts the movement of some finches and other birds during winter. Some of these birds are visitors to North Dakota bird feeders, such as purple finches, redpolls, pine siskins, crossbills, pine grosbeaks, and evening grosbeaks. 

Don’t expect to see big numbers of pine grosbeaks this winter.  The fruit crop of mountain ash was good across much of the northern coniferous forest this year, so they will probably stay put. The pine siskins will also likely stay up north due to excellent spruce seed production in western Canada.  

We have been seeing chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, both the downy and hairy woodpeckers, and blue jays at our bird feeders this winter. But even though the feeders have been busy, I haven’t seen anything unusual or any of the birds from up north yet this winter.