Last night when the temperature dipped to 14º F, I knew the birds in my backyards were facing a life and death struggle to survive the cold weather. For example, the tufted titmice and Carolina chickadees that frequent my feeders throughout the day had to burn far more body fat than normal just to keep from freezing to death. This meant these small birds could have easily lost 70-75% of their stored body fat between sunset and dawn.
To ensure that they had enough stored fat in their bodies to meet this challenge the birds, they could have eaten some 20% more fat-laden foods before sunset than they do when temperatures are higher. This helps explain why we see them visiting our suet and black oil sunflower seed feeders more often when the weather turns cold.
6 thoughts on “EATING TO STAY WARM ON FRIGID NIGHTS”
Outside of Tallahassee where I live the temperature dipped to 21 last night. I had loaded the feeders with lots of sunflower seeds and also had two suet feeding stations. Today, the activity was an amazing frenzy with cardinals, blue jays, pine warblers, chickadees, titmice, chipping sparrows, ground doves, one female reb bellied woodpecker, one goldfinch, and one yellow throated warbler.. swapping places as they attempted to grab all the food they possibly could!
Trying to reach Terry Johnson. I heard about your talk in Milledgeville tonight, and am the niece of Susan Myrick. She stated that she would rather be remembered for her contributions to agriculture than for her work with GWTW. Thank you for remembering her. Do you have a copy of her bio, Susan Myrick of GWTW? I will send you a copy if you don’t. I wrote it from her papers.
Our birds are keeping us busy during this fridge weather. In the past, we have noticed that just before snow or ice storms move in, they will keep the feeders and suet cages busy.
Outside of Tallahassee where I live the temperature dipped to 21 last night. I had loaded the feeders with lots of sunflower seeds and also had two suet feeding stations. Today, the activity was an amazing frenzy with cardinals, blue jays, pine warblers, chickadees, titmice, chipping sparrows, ground doves, one female reb bellied woodpecker, one goldfinch, and one yellow throated warbler.. swapping places as they attempted to grab all the food they possibly could!
David,
What a great story! It sounds like those birds burned a lot of their stored fat the night before their feeding binge. Thanks for sharing it.
Trying to reach Terry Johnson. I heard about your talk in Milledgeville tonight, and am the niece of Susan Myrick. She stated that she would rather be remembered for her contributions to agriculture than for her work with GWTW. Thank you for remembering her. Do you have a copy of her bio, Susan Myrick of GWTW? I will send you a copy if you don’t. I wrote it from her papers.
That would be great!
Our birds are keeping us busy during this fridge weather. In the past, we have noticed that just before snow or ice storms move in, they will keep the feeders and suet cages busy.
That is a perfect example of the birds try to store energy to survive harsh weather. Thanks for your story.