Wesley's Backyard Birds
Common Redpoll

This was a surprise for me to see one of these since they are rarely seen around here. I happened to glance out my office window to see this one feeding and haven't seen one since. The Common Redpoll is seen in North America primarily only in the winter. Even then, it generally only occurs during irruptions. An irruptive bird is one that will irregularly migrate to a location that it normally doesn't go to, or will migrate to a place every other year or so. This is mainly due to food shortage where they normally migrate to in the winter. On Common Redpoll's wintering grounds, they feed primarily on the catkins of birch and alder trees. In a year of poor catkin production, Redpolls will begin to move out of their regular range in search of an area with good food availability. When doing so they usually travel in large flocks, 40-50 and sometimes up to 100; for some reason there was the only one lone Redpoll at my feeder. Another frequently seen irruptive species that has been at my feeders is the Pine Siskin. Redpolls have throat pouches for temporarily storing seeds. They may fill their pouches with seeds quickly then fly away to swallow the seeds in a more protected, warmer spot. The Common Redpoll is a species in the finch family. In the Summer they stay mainly in Alaska and northern Canada, but also Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia, and parts of Europe. In the Winter they'll migrate to southern parts of Canada and to the northern, mainly northeast, United States.