On Oct. 22, I introduced my wonderful readers to the “Winter Finch Forecast” that is issued annually by the Finch Research Network. There are some outstanding scientists out there who are monitoring the boreal forests of North America and the birds that rely on the spruce trees that grow there. Every year, once the data has been crunched, a report is sent out suggesting the likeliness of an irruption of hungry “winter finches.”
Well, these folks really nailed it this year. 2025 was an outstanding year for spruce budworms — a type of caterpillar that feeds on spruce trees — and the many species of finches that feed on them. This produced a fantastic breeding season for the birds and their numbers soared. Unfortunately, the spruce trees themselves had a rough year due to the high numbers of budworms and the long summer drought. These stressors resulted in large numbers of birds with low levels of winter food available for them. To survive, they must fan out across the continent to find something to eat.
This brings us to Nov. 11. It was Veterans Day and there was no school, which meant that I could stay home and watch birds. It was also a cold, stormy day with snowflakes in the air and that made me think that I might see something special. The “regulars” at my feeders are always interesting to observe, but once in a while it is nice to see something unusual, or exotic. Little did I know that I would get just that.
It was 10:43 a.m. when the first bird appeared. I had already spent two hours watching the feeders between 6:30-8:30 a.m. and had transitioned to “office mode,” but I made a quick trip down to the kitchen to top off my mug of coffee. In so doing, I glanced out the windows that look out at my feeders and there was an evening grosbeak! It was hanging around with a mixed flock of finches and sparrows and munching away on sunflower seeds. Apparently, my cool bird detector was on the fritz. If not for the coffee run, I would have missed it completely.
I managed to take a seat by the window, but when I raised my camera the birds all flew off. I’ve had at least two different Cooper’s hawks hunting in my neighborhood and all of the birds are understandably on edge. There was no way that I was giving up on this bird, so I just planted myself at the window and waited for a while. About 25 minutes later the grosbeak returned; again in the company of a mixed flock of American goldfinches and house finches.
Unfortunately, the angle of my view through the triple-paned windows made the photos that I took a little too blurry to use, but stubbornness (three double letters there!) can pay off when you are a photographer. I didn’t leave my post and I was eventually rewarded with the photo that you see today. Nikonus and Iso must have been very happy with me because the white sky makes for a nice “winter” feel.
The evening grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina, or “the voice of the evening”) is a species in trouble. According to the Finch Research Network, the population of evening grosbeaks has experienced a 92% decline since 1970. Back in the winters of 1978 and 1980, when I was just a kid, we would often see large flocks of these birds at the feeders in the back yard of the family home in Amherst. I thought this was normal, but then the birds just sort of evaporated. Now we know why. Habitat loss resulting from logging — for lumber and to make room for the extraction of oil from tar sands — and the use of pesticides that knock down the numbers of the budworms (a key food source) are both major contributors to their decline.
In pre-industrial America, the vast boreal forests of Canada and the northern United States were full of these birds and many other species that depended on the spruce trees for food. Females would build their cup-shaped nests on the horizontal limb of a tree and then fill these nests with three to four blue-green eggs covered brown, gray or purple splotches. The chicks would be fed insect larvae (especially budworms) and seeds that had been mashed into a pulp up by the adults. In just two weeks the chicks would fledge and then join the nomadic flocks in the search for winter food.
Today, in the case of the evening grosbeak, we have only a vestige of what once was. Their natural history is exactly the same, but they simply have far fewer resources to work with. If humans stopped cutting down spruce trees tomorrow, things might turn around for the birds. The cessation of spruce tree harvesting would also dramatically reduce the pesticide problem, because silviculturists use pesticides to ensure healthy trees to be harvested for human use. If you live in a home made of two-by-four lumber, then you have relied on this sort of wood in a major way. It was never anyone’s intent to do harm to the birds, but harm has caused nonetheless.
Would you like to help these birds? All you have to do is provide them with food. Grosbeaks have very large beaks. The species name actually comes from the French words “gros,” meaning “big” and “bec,” meaning “beak.” This means that grosbeaks will prefer larger seeds, like sunflower and safflower seeds, both of which are readily available in commercial birdseed blends. All you have to do is spread these seeds on the ground, on the railing of your deck or in a hanging platform feeder. Then, keep your eyes peeled. Grosbeaks will follow other birds to reliable sources of food, so the locals will lead the way. Just remember that the gigantic “goldfinch” you see is actually a hungry visitor from the Great White North.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 28 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more information visit his website at www.speakingofnature.com, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.