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.
