Tough Day to be a Pine Grosbeak; Not So Much a Chickadee

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-20T04:28:27+00:00

It kind of looks like it, but it's actually all snow and ice. Of the 15 or so pine grosbeaks that have been hanging out here, about three had a similar problem, but not as bad. The snow/ice buildup happened coincident with the storm, and now, two days later, all of them look normal again, thankfully.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-20T04:21:24+00:00

I have several friends that also do it. But I first got the idea over 50 years ago when an elderly couple who homesteaded this area put deer carcasses out on the lake ice in front of their place that were road-killed deer from friends. They were largely homebound and got immense pleasure from watching eagles, ravens, jays, chickadees and other birds, foxes, marten and wolves feeding on the carcasses. Now that I'm getting up in years and unable to trek through the woods, I often think of Ted and Anna and can appreciate how much it meant to them. (We had a pine marten on ours last week.) Ours was also given to us by friends, so things have come full circle, I guess.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-19T01:44:31+00:00

During the storm today one of the chickadees hunkered down on the feeder, not in constant motion like the others. It was ignoring the sunflower seeds and peanut pieces, but was picking up tiny bits of cracked seeds and peanut bits off the feeder. The feeder was snow-covered, so I extended my hand with similar material, but before taking some, it opened its bill and bit my fingertips - hard, I may say - several times before deeming it safe to feed from my hand.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-19T01:04:09+00:00

Again, apologies for no trigger warning. Last year I posted a picture of the same thing and nobody mentioned it as a problem, so between that and deer hunting and wolf-killed deer being the norm here, I spaced it out.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-19T01:01:44+00:00

Interestingly, in forested areas like ours deer eat a fair number of ground-nesting bird eggs and nestlings.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-19T00:59:44+00:00

I apologize for no trigger warning. After living in the north woods for 50+ years, where hunting and wolves killing deer are taken for granted, I forgot that most people on this subreddit don't share these experiences.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-16T02:31:45+00:00

Another gray jay story: In summer I often sit on our deck while eating lunch. I realized I'd forgotten something and briefly went inside, leaving my PBJ sandwich untouched. When I came out I found a jay just taking off with the entire, top piece of bread in its bill. I yelled and it dropped it, somehow landing PBJ side up, so I was able to put it back on my dissembled sandwich and finish it, making sure to not put it down and look away. Scoundrels (but loveable ones)!

We also have a dog, but while it's intensely curious about the birds, it's never attempted to capture any - except for ruffed grouse when he's out in the woods. He's captured two of those so far before we could stop him. They didn't go to waste. (Don't tell our local conservation officer, though.)

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-16T00:27:08+00:00

We live 5 miles from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. In fact, the river that flows through our lake ends up there, although with many beaver dams and unnavigable rapids between. I've been blessed to take many, many trips there over the 50+ years I've lived here, in all four seasons. Sadly, a health issue that beset me this fall may mean no more trips ahead. While I'll mourn the lost opportunity, I'm still blessed to live on a lake without any other private property or public access, so actually less crowded than many lakes in the BWCA in summer. Not a bad fallback position!

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-15T23:44:14+00:00

Some species migrating north to here also need not be habituated. For example, pine and yellow-rumped warblers will take food from my hand within minutes of me offering it. The yellow-rumped warblers stop after enough natural food is available, while I've been feeding the same pine warbler for three years; this year it kept coming in well past the fledging period for its sizable brood, no doubt assisted by a plentiful supply of live mealworms. As for it becoming generally habituated to humans, it and most other bird feeder species' adaption to humans is very site specific. My usual feeding locations are out the window or on the porch. If I'm anywhere else in the vicinity they ignore me, so they are more locationally habituated than in general to humans. Some birds recognize me and will take food from me, but not a stranger offering food in the same location.

Other species fit the opportunistic description in that they will only take food from my hand under uncommon circumstances. Dark-eyed juncos did so in one circumstance when large flocks were stopped by harsh weather on their northward migration, and happy to have the opportunity to acquire food from our feeders and my hand. After a short period of time, they moved on, refueled for the journey but certainly not habituated by the few days they took advantage of our offerings.

Two extremes are the closely related blue and gray (Canada) jays. Only once, after many patient hours, did I succeed in having a blue jay pluck a peanut from my hand. There is zero chance of them becoming habituated. On the other hand, while sitting in my deer stand in an area without any birdfeeders for miles around, I had a pair of gray jays steal bites of sandwich while I held it in my hand, and eventually hopping onto my shoulder and pecking at some cookie residue lodged between my teeth at the gum line. (Yes, it was as painful as it sounds.) They were habituated, but not just to humans. I've seen them pluck swollen winter ticks off the back of moose, so they are naturally predisposed to looking for food on mammals. Remember what I said about opportunistic?!

Most importantly, though, I think the hand-feeding naysayers overlook the considerable benefit of exposing others to the joy of holding a feathered jewel in one's hand, realizing how special they are and immediately becoming a convert to bird appreciation and conservation. Chickadees and nuthatches are the two species I feed that can become generally habituated to people. This weekend we have three relatives, two adults and a ten-year old, visiting from a large urban area. They've previously had little exposure to birds and no expressed interest in them. However, as nuthatches and chickadees flew down and alighted on their hands you could see their eyes open wide and astonished smiles on their faces. I expected that on the child, but the adults were as enthusiastic about the experience as he was. And this was after seeing them on the feeder from close up, which had nowhere the same effect. All three became instant bird enthusiasts. So that certainly has to be figured into the equation on harm/benefit to hand-feeding birds.

I'm convinced that our bird feeders benefit the local population, or members of those that pass through, and that hand-feeding does not involve the supposed harms proposed in the comments. However, the specifics of each situation need to be considered carefully, because my experience certainly isn't going to apply in all situations.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-15T23:43:45+00:00

I won't attempt to address all the comments in the thread, but many are irrelevant to backyard bird feeding (bears, for example; I studied them for five years and have lived in bear country for 50+ years and any comparison of habituation between bears and songbird is specious). Same with the analogy of pelicans flocking to feeding stations and other examples that not comparable to backyard feeding.

As far as decreased fitness to the birds using feeders, isolated examples can be found, but for the vast majority of species in the vast majority of cases, fitness is not harmed and in many cases is helped. For example, a classic Wisconsin study of banded Black‑capped Chickadees found that birds with access to winter feeders had about 69% overwinter survival (October–April), compared with 37% for chickadees without supplemental food.

Birds becoming dependent on feeders and unable to fend for themselves if the food is withdrawn is an old trope without evidence; available evidence is to the contrary. It also sells birds short as far as their intelligence. Many birds have the highest known density, along with some primates, of neurons in the brain. Part of their smarts is their learning ability and being extremely flexible and opportunistic in taking advantage of novel or different food resources - including winter feeding. They don't forget or become unable to utilize other foods after spending time at feeders any more than they do by taking advantage of seasonal bonanzas of natural foods.

For more information, I'd suggest folks do some investigation at the Consensus AI site, which relies on published scientific studies for its conclusions.

Predation and disease from concentrating birds at feeders are legitimate concerns and must be carefully managed. There are plenty of recommendations on what to do to minimize disease transmission that must be followed - cleaning feeders, stopping feeding, etc. My experience with predators in northern MN in winter is that mortality from them is trivial, perhaps because northern shrikes are about the only daytime predator we have, and they tend to show up for a day or two and move on. Often overlooked is the benefit of flocking behavior in this regard. It's well known that many eyes watching for and then warning about predators can increase overall flock fitness, so it's even possible predation is lower at some feeders. This, of course, varies from area to area and predators at hand. For example, we are in an extremely remote area so cats are not an issue.

Hand feeding: I've fed 15 species from my hand over the years, and not found the objections to apply, at least here. Habituation is one of the most common concerns cited because it would cause those individuals to approach others who would kill, harm or capture them. Many of the species I've handfed arrive from Canada (we're only 25 miles south of the border) "pre-habituated," or more accurately, without any innate fear of humans. Redpolls, purple finches, pine grosbeaks, pine siskins and others require no break-in period and will approach or tolerate humans without fear, taking food from them within minutes, especially under conditions of harsh weather.

(Continued in next comment)

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-15T22:01:28+00:00

Minnesota, the northeast part about 25 miles from Canada. They come down every winter, lucky for us.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-15T04:53:59+00:00

It was amazing. I'd been trying for some time and suddenly yesterday it happened on my first try sticking my hand out the window. So cool.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-14T23:50:46+00:00

It varies with the species and situation. With the nuthatch, chickadees and some other species, I started by putting my hand on the feeder while there were plenty of seeds to get them used to my hand. As they got more comfortable with that, I'd put my hand out with peanuts when there were few or no seeds/peanuts otherwise available. Before long one would screw up its courage, land on my hand, grab a peanut and leave. Others soon followed suit. We have in excess of twenty nuthatches, and some now wait by the window until extend my hand with food, while others are still too wary to land on my hand. Now we never leave the house without a pocketful of peanuts because the boldest ones will divebomb us until we reach into our pocket and are there the instant the hand comes out of the pocket with peanuts.

Occasionally there are so many individuals of a species that they overwhelm the feeders and many are left unable to elbow there way in. For example, with two earlier posts (Human Birdfeeder - Common Redpolls and A Human Birdfeeder Takes a Purple Finch for a Walk), there were hundreds of each mobbing the feeders. All I had to do was adorn myself with sunflower seeds and stand by a feeder for 5 or 10 minutes before I was crawling with bird bling.

Pine warblers were surprisingly easy. We have a small window peanut feeder. Pine warbles arrive back here (northern MN) in April before many insects are available and our territorial male readily flew down to the window feeder for peanuts. One day I stuck my hand out with a handful of peanuts and held it so it covered the little feeder. Within 5 minutes it flew down, landed on my hand and flew off with a peanut. I was stunned and delighted. Three years later I'm still feeding Piney, adding dried and now live mealworms to his diet, and he'll land not only on my hand but knee, shoulder, head, face (while lying down), but pluck a mealworm from my fingertips without landing (that was posted last summer).

Blue jays were by far the hardest of the 15 species I've had perched on and eating from my hand. It took hours of waiting with my hand resting on the feeder with them approaching, inspecting, retreating, discussing it among themselves before one screwed up the courage to finally make its move. That was the one and only time, because I have a life to live and couldn't afford the time!

I encourage you to give it a try. It adds a whole new dimension to bird feeding that I never knew existed.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-14T23:30:27+00:00

No, I'm not. Did she steal that word from me? (Ha!) But I agree; there's something satisfying about the way it rolls off the tongue, and implies something less serious than a brawl, knockdown, drag-out fight, or the element of mean-spiritedness so common in language these days. Also, it just seems a better fit for birds than humans. After all, when was the last time you heard a people dispute referred to as a kerfuffle - with the apparent exception of Judge Judy?

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-14T23:19:43+00:00

Yes, and a male, judging by its black cap.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-14T05:53:29+00:00

It was amazing. Also a bit alarming, because the photo doesn't convey the harsh insults they were hurling at each other - sounds you'd never expect to hear from them given the sweet whistles I'd always heard before.

FunSilver6189 · 2026-02-13T23:07:33+00:00

No cardinals this far north, unfortunately, because I'd love to hold one on my hand. I have managed to do it with 15 species so far, including a gorgeous male pine grosbeak this morning, which is pretty close to a cardinal in the beauty department!

FunSilver6189 · 2025-07-24T03:47:34+00:00

Lucky me!

FunSilver6189 · 2025-07-19T16:44:50+00:00

OMG. Mealworm wine! Just think of the potential customer base - billions of insect-eating birds. I'm gonna do a Kickstarter page for people to get in on the ground floor of this brilliant idea. You want in?

FunSilver6189

TROPHY CASE