The technical name for this bird is the “dark-eyed junco,” but we always called them “snowbirds.”
They usually spend most of their time deep in the conifer woods, but when it snows, they come out in the open and are regulars at just about every bird feeder.
I believe this is the same species Anne Murray wrote about:
My grandpa used to poach them as bait for his fox traps, and when he was a boy, they used to catch them in spruce trees at night, kill them and then roast them over an open fire. He claimed the birds tasted very well, but you had to catch a bunch of them to have a decent meal.
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That’s what we called them too. But when I joined a birding club here in MD, an “expert” very snootily told me that I was all wrong. Needless to say, I dropped out of that club.
Oh, and I love that song.
Watch Michael Moore’s Canadian Bacon (one of the last John Candy movies) and it will be etched on your brain forever.
I remember Canadian Bacon. Quite a parody, no?
Up here in Michigan, snowbirds are the people who flee to Florida at the beginning of winter, and come back in the spring. With the temperature tonight predicted to be single digits, I’m thinking they might be on to something….q
This Brit has never heard of them, but tell me – given they seem so easily caught, are there many left?
They are protected by federal law, virtually no one would think of poaching them.
But can cats read federal law?
No. And cats kill a lot of snowbirds every year.
Would foxes kill less birds than cats, while still keeping mice numbers down? Or is that not a possible answer?
Foxes kill fewer songbirds than cats, bu they kill more game birds.
Foxes and cats cause problems because they are part of what is called mesopredator release. When we killed off the bigger predators, these smaller ones are now in much higher numbers, and their prey species are under much higher levels of predation than they ever experienced. If we still had the big predators, the mesopredators (the little ones) would have their numbers checked
Me, and most people who just want to walk dogs through the woods, are not really into actual mountain lions, wolf packs, and bears – Oh My!
So having, or introducing, large predators just isn’t an answer that has much appeal. Coyotes, maybe, bobcats maybe. No to alligators, venomous snakes, or any dangerous creatures.
Too many deer? Open hunting numbers.
Too many rabbits? Encourage people to shoot the extra – kinder than having wild predators kill them or snakes, kinder than starving (which is what happens when there are too many of any animal for its habitat to maintain.
But rats and mice? Harder to get hunters to balance their numbers – and if something doesn’t balance their numbers, they will reproduce in huge numbers. So what is the answer to a reasonably balanced ecosystem in the modern era?