Boreal Bird Blog    

Dr. Jeff Wells is the Senior Scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative. During his time at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and as the Audubon Society's National Conservation Director, Dr. Wells earned a reputation as one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. He is now dedicated to understanding and protecting the land where North America's birds are born and raised, the Boreal Forest of Canada and Alaska. Check back regularly to read Dr. Wells' perspectives on the conservation, migration and interesting habits of Boreal birds.

Buntings and Redpolls

Two seed-loving birds that breed up north in the boreal taiga and arctic tundra, the Snow Bunting and Common Redpoll, paid visit to our colleague Valerie Courtois of the Canadian Boreal Initiative recently. She lives way up in Goose Bay, Labrador, so they likely spent their winter down in southern Canada or the northern US and are now on their trip north for summer breeding.

Despite the massive heat wave that hit much of the East Coast in March, Labrador still had a decent amount of snow on the ground in recent weeks. This of course did not deter the buntings or redpolls whatsoever – they particularly loved her feeder and the seeds that fell down into the snow below, as you can see in the pictures.

Thanks to Val for sharing these lovely shots with us!

One Response to “Buntings and Redpolls”

  1. Scott Says:

    Wow! Great to have the Snow Buntings visiting in the yard. I’d love to be able to see some that close. We recently had huge flocks of Snow Buntings (thousands and thousands) out in the fields. It seems the last of our Redpolls departed us last week here in the middle of Saskatchewan.

    Thanks for sharing the great photos.

Leave a Reply


In an effort to control spam, please answer the question below



  Email Borealbirds.org | 206.956.9040 | E-Update Unsubscribe Copyright © 2005 Boreal Songbird Initiative