Winter
Winter is the time to change the composition of bird foods offered and perhaps the arrangement of your feeders. This will aid in the birds' survival, as well as increase your viewing enjoyment in the snowy months ahead.
Permanent residents, such as chickadees and cardinals, are dependable every year. Some winter visitors are birds of boreal regions. Their feeding patterns are unpredictable and tend to be cyclic. Numbers can peak at three to four or nine to ten year intervals, or they can be "irruptive," meaning periodic appearances of unusually high numbers.
If seeds are in short supply, some species, such as Red-breasted nuthatches, Common and Hoary redpolls, Pine siskins, Red and White-winged crossbills, and Pine grosbeaks, may wander far from their normal ranges in search of food.
