When I was just starting out in the hobby of birdwatching and bird photography, I saw a photo of a bird (I don’t recall the species) eating a berry. It became my mission to get a photo of a bird eating berries. But how would I ever get such a shot, I thought to myself at the time.

In the years that followed, I have had plenty of opportunities to get that coveted shot that once seemed so elusive. I’ve been lucky enough to photograph birds such as yellow-rumped warblers, blackburnian warblers, cedar waxwings, robins, catbirds, hermit thrushes, purple finches, house finches and song sparrows eating berries.

I say lucky because finding birds eating berries is a matter of timing. There is skill involved, of course, such as knowing where the berries are and knowing the time of year that birds may visit for a meal. But there’s no way of knowing exactly when the birds will be there.

This winter, however, I’ve been exceptionally lucky (with a modicum of skill involved too, I guess.) My local patch has an abundance of a dark berry along my favorite walking trail. I’m not an expert at plant or berry identification by any means, but the plant ID app on my phone says the berries are from a plant called border privet. The app also marks the plant as invasive. Tons of these berries remain, which hints to me that the birds don’t particularly like the berries but eat them out of necessity.

Nearly every time I walk there, birds of various sorts are eating the berries. That is where I have been seeing the unusual-for-winter species such as gray catbird and hermit thrush. I haven’t been lucky enough to find any cedar waxwings eating the berries this year. A few years ago, I saw a flock of waxwings eating the berries during a snowfall. No such luck this year yet.

A little farther along the trail and off to the right is a field where a crabapple tree grows. The crabapples, which are all but gone now, were a valuable source of food for many birds throughout December and January. I watched yellow-bellied sapsuckers and white-throated sparrows devouring the fruits one day last month.

This winter has been a boon for my birds-eating-berries photo collection. Most of it has been luck with the timing, but some of it is knowing where those privet berries are and getting out there to see what’s around.

Speaking of seeing what’s around, I heard from a few more readers who shared some interesting sightings.

Connie from the Lakes Region had a brown creeper in her yard and, during a trip to Meredith, found robins and cedar waxwings. Pat from Sandwich had bluebirds and purple finches, as well as an eastern towhee still hanging around.

Kathy from Swanzey has been hosting pine siskins in her yard for a few weeks now. “I’ve never had this many before.  They are at our feeders and feeding on the ground every day, usually in the morning.  The last three days, my husband and I counted as fast as we could and had about 100 in our yard and on feeders. It’s the same every day,” she wrote.

It was nice to hear about the siskins from Kathy. Other than the usual suspects, I haven’t had anything exciting visit the feeders this winter. There’s still time. Don’t forget about the Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend (February 16-19) and don’t forget to send me your highlights.