Not so Common Redpolls

I photographed these cute little birds at our feeders on January 5th and 7th.

Common Redpolls, as they are known, live in the boreal and taiga regions of Canada but are not so common in our area of upstate New York.

Sometimes though, we get lucky.

This happens when supplies of tree seeds in the boreal forests are low and they need to find food sources elsewhere.

When they move south to our northern states it's called an 'irruption' and typically occurs every other winter. We didn't see them at all last winter, but a few visited in early 2009.

  

The male has a red breast as well as a red cap, but the female only has the red cap.
You can see a mixture of males and females on the tray. Click on the photos for a closer view.

They are perky little members of the finch family. The same size as Goldfinches, they are often seen feeding with a group of 'Goldies'.

Another 'irruptive' finch that we love to see at our feeders are Pine Siskins. I was lucky enough to catch them on November 2nd 2010, but sadly, haven't seen them since. As you can see, they are very similar to Redpolls but lack the red markings.

There was a huge irruption of Siskins during the winter of 2008-09 and we enjoyed these gregarious little birds for most of those winter months. None were seen the following winter and we missed their friendly presence.

There's a post about this winter's Redpoll irruption on the new Project Feederwatch blog here if you'd like to read more about these birds and find out where else they've been spotted.

Here's another little 'lady' Redpoll.

I hope both these uncommon visitors will stop by again before the winter is over to liven up our feeders and brighten our days. 

Jasmine and Hannah might even rouse themselves for such an event!