The ABAblog on redpolls that Ted Floyd cited the other day goes
into amazing depthsfor a casual bird watcher who might sink in the esoteric
literature onredpolls, DNA, statistics, etc.
One minorpoint, though, that Bill Schmoker mentioned, raises a
question I have ponderedlately. He said, “. . . Flocks coming to feeders are
probably under-counted.For example, if someone counts and reports 75 redpolls
at a feeding station,there well may be a pool of 200 or 300 birds coming and
going.”
I remembersomeone saying that if you see 4 Black-capped Chickadees
at a feeder at onetime, you probably have 16-20 actually patronizing your
largess.
At ourfeeders we commonly see 5-10 House Finches at a time.
However, when we walk inthe field below the house, in a big thicket of wild
plums 200-300 yards away,we typically flush 60-120 House Finches.
Do manyspecies, during non-breeding seasons, move around in small
cohorts compared to their local numbers? Do allthose House Finches in the field
sample our feeders sometime during the day? Ordo some scorn our offerings for
natural food or a neighbor’s feeders?
Hugh Kingery
Franktown, CO
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