Why Backyards Matter to Winter Birds
In winter, deep snow and ice can bury foods just when birds need more calories to keep warm through bitter cold. At the same time, water is locked into frozen ice, so birds cannot easily drink. Dropping temperatures can make birds slower and more vulnerable to illness or predators, and fallen leaves offer less protection to keep winter birds safe. Fortunately, a bird-friendly yard can provide for all of a bird’s needs even during the coldest months.
Food: When insects are dead or inaccessible to feeding birds, nectar-producing flowers are long gone, and seed supplies are exhausted, winter backyards can be a vital food source. Higher calorie foods such as suet, peanut butter, and nuts are ideal for feeding winter birds and will attract more species to the backyard. Water: While snow and ice are both waters, frozen water is less helpful to birds, because they must expend energy to melt it to drink. Even if birds eat snow directly, their bodies must generate more heat to metabolize that snow and overcome the chill. A heated bird bath can be critical, and birds will quickly find and flock to such an easy, convenient, liquid water source in winter. Shelter: Evergreen trees provide great shelter for winter birds, but in areas where deciduous trees have lost their leaves, not as much shelter may be available. Birds can take refuge in hollow trees, but those hideaways may be few and far between. Backyards that offer winter bird shelters such as dense brush piles, roost boxes, or year-round birdhouses will attract more visitors. Nesting Sites: Your backyard birds may not breed in winter, but year-round residents remain in the same territories and will quickly revisit their favorite nesting sites when spring arrives. Ensuring that those sites, including birdhouses or bird nesting shelves, remain safe and suitable can help keep even more backyard birds around all winter.
Top 40 Winter Backyard Birds (U.S. and Canada)
The exact species of winter backyard birds vary depending on range, geography, and habitat. These 40 species are most likely to be found in snowy backyards throughout the United States and Canada. Some are common backyard birds year-round, and others are only winter visitors. Still, other species have regular irruptions and may be common one year and absent the next.
American crows American goldfinches American robins American tree sparrows Anna’s hummingbirds Black-capped chickadees Bohemian waxwings Carolina chickadees Cedar waxwings Common redpolls Cooper’s hawks Dark-eyed juncos Downy woodpeckers European starlings Evening grosbeaks Golden-crowned kinglets Hairy woodpeckers Hoary redpolls House finches House sparrows Mourning doves Northern cardinals Northern mockingbirds Pine grosbeaks Pine siskins Purple finches Red-bellied woodpeckers Red-breasted nuthatches Red crossbills Rock pigeons Sharp-shinned hawks Snow buntings Song sparrows Tufted titmice White-breasted nuthatches White-crowned sparrows White-throated sparrows White-winged crossbills Wild turkeys Yellow-rumped warblers
These are not the only backyard birds that might appear in winter, but they are quite common within their respective ranges. If a backyard meets their needs, they are likely to be winter visitors.
Where Other Birds Go
For many birders, their favorite species - such as tanagers, hummingbirds, warblers, or orioles—are conspicuously absent in winter. These and many other birds are migratory, and in winter they travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to milder climates or rich tropical regions that can support many birds with ease. While the journey can be difficult and migrating birds face many threats along the way, these birds will return in the spring to revisit their breeding grounds and raise their next generation. We may miss them in winter, but even when the snow flies, many great birds are still flying around the backyard!
