Following the food. (Originally published winter 2008)

You really have to hand it to the birds. When it comes to food, they know what to look for and where to find it. Sure, food is survival, but sometimes it doesn’t seem that simple.
The other day I watched a very busy American tree sparrow foraging along the ground. The ground seemed like an odd place to find a tree sparrow, but sometimes birds are not named perfectly. Anyway, the little sparrow diligently searched every nook and cranny between blades of dried grass in search of food. Every other minute or so it took a short break from searching for food to gobble up a found morsel.
I assumed it was looking for seeds, but this guy was also on the hunt for something bigger: grubs, worms and insects. February seemed like an odd time for a bird to be finding worms and insects, however, this tree sparrow was having great luck on this unseasonably mild day.
Either the bird knew that the mild weather would yield some nutritious worms, or it was just getting lucky in its search for seeds on the ground. I’d like to believe the bird knew the insects were down there. Many birds survive on seeds and berries throughout the winter, but if insects are available, why not gobble up those protein-packed morsels?
In this case it wasn’t the early bird getting the worm, it was the early worm getting the bird. Not a good scenario for the worm. Actually, neither scenario is, is it?
Watching the tree sparrow just drove home the point that birds are survivalists and amazing to study.
All of New England this winter is experiencing an example of this bird survival. Birds in large numbers are simply going where the food is. Every few years winter finches such pine grosbeaks, red crossbills and common redpolls come down to New England to find food. The visits are called “irruptions” and the finches “irrupt” into New England when their food sources up north are not sufficient.
This year seems to be a particularly strong irruption winter as rare bird alerts throughout New England are filled with sightings of grosbeaks, crossbills, redpolls and siskins. Christmas Bird Count results from December also support the findings.
Sure, these birds may be here in large numbers, but the trick is finding them. They don’t fly around with neon signs on their backs reading, “Rare bird, look at me.”
If you’re lucky the birds will come to you. Redpolls and (occasionally) pine grosbeaks may be attracted to feeders. The grosbeaks are more likely to visit crabapple trees or some other type of fruit-bearing tree or bush.
The crossbills are even more tricky as they are lured by spruce cones and other types of pine cones. Unless you have those trees on your property, you’ll have to go looking for them. Of course, visiting Rare Bird Alert Web sites may improve your odds, too.
So far I haven’t been lucky enough this winter to find any flocks of redpolls, pine grosbeaks or crossbills. I’ll keep my eyes open, though. You never know where their survival instincts will lead them.

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