I find these regional and local movements of finches fascinating. The hard part is that the tools we have to track those movements don't work well for these species. To figure out what they're really doing, we need to be able to follow individual birds, and that's nearly impossible for small, nomadic bids. Satellite transmitters are too big for most of the finches, and these new geolocators that are illuminating lots of bird movements require recapturing the birds to get the data. We could track them with radio transmitters, but those have limited range. Banding recoveries are probably our best bet, but they're rare enough that we don't get a very complete picture. So it may be a while before we get a thorough understanding of finch movements.
Dan, did you ever recapture birds from previous years? I'm really curious how often birds come back to the same wintering areas. We know that many finches move around based on regional availability of food, to the point that there's an annual forecast of those movements for the northeast (http://10000birds.com/winter-finch-forecast-for-2012-2013.htm). I think this food-based nomadic movement is very true for siskins and redpolls, and might be true on a smaller scale for goldfinches. Several years ago, siskins completely disappeared from Washington state for close to a year. People started worrying that there had been a big die-off. Then, they reappeared as mysteriously as they'd gone, and I'm not sure if anyone knows where they went during that time. As a final note, there are a ton of bird species in Australia that wander around from season to season and year to year, depending on where water and food are available. There are a few groups of birds that we know do that in North America (owls, finches), but I wonder how much of it occurs with other species (diurnal raptors, for example). So much we still have to learn. Matt Dufort Minneapolis On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 2:15 PM, Steve Weston <[email protected]> wrote: > We have about six to twelve Goldfinches regularly coming to the sunflower > feeders, along with about the same number of House Finches. Pine Siskins > come in for short periods of time, but I can often hear them in the tree > tops. It has seemed like only two to four were around most of the winter, > but numbers appear to be higher now with about six at the bird bath and > feeder yesterday at a time. Greater numbers of finches are in the treetops > and may be coming to neighboring feeders. Redpolls have enjoyed my > neighbor's feeder much more than mine. Nobody has interest in my thistle > seed. > > > On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 12:01 PM, dan&erika <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Betsy and All-- > > > > I banded great numbers of goldfinches, redpolls, and siskins for almost > 30 > > years in South Dakota. At first it appeared that goldfinches were > replaced > > by siskins, which in turn were replaced by redpolls--depending on the > > winter. As time passed, however, I came to agree with Betsy Beneke. I > > concluded that these winter finch cycles are random and unpredictable. > Some > > winters I banded numbers of all three species. This winter, here in > > Minnesota, we have many siskins and redpolls but very few goldfinches. > > > > dan > > > > > > On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 7:23 AM, Betsy Beneke <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > I'm still feeding anywhere from 50 to 125 common redpo > > > Erika, and all, > > > > > > I'm still feeding anywhere from 50 to 125 common redpolls at my house > > east > > > of St. Cloud every day. No pine siskins or goldfinches all winter. > > > > > > At Sherburne Refuge, I've had scattered goldfinches all winter - no > > > regulars - there are 2-6 birds one or two days a week. No siskins. > > Still > > > seeing a couple of large flocks of redpolls on the east side of the > > refuge, > > > but I haven't had a single one at my bird feeder at HQ all winter. > Guess > > > they just never found me. > > > > > > I've found in my many years of feeding birds in MN that goldfinches and > > > pine siskins are always roaming, you can never count on them from one > > year > > > or even season to the next. > > > > > > Betsy Beneke > > > > > > ---- > > > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > > > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Dan or Erika Tallman > > Northfield, Minnesota > > [email protected] > > > > http://sites.google.com/site/tallmanorum > > http://dantallmansbirdblog.blogspot.com > > http://picasaweb.google.com/danerika > > > > The White Album: Portraits of Minnesota > > Birds< > > > http://www.blurb.com/b/3992062-the-white-album-portraits-of-minnesota-birds-dan-t > > > > > Two Years Among the Odonates < > > http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3467428> > > > > ".... the best shod travel with wet feet...Beware of all enterprises that > > require new clothes ....”—H. D. Thoreau; "Back off, man. I'm a > > scientist."—Dr. Peter Venkman > > > > ---- > > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > > > > > > -- > Steve Weston > On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN > [email protected] > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
