The Red-breasted Nuthatch, and other backyard birds

An unusual bird for Southeastern North Carolina has been showing up with surprisingly regularity the past few weeks:  the Red-breasted Nuthatch. (Sitta canadensis) According to a recent news post by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Red-breasted Nuthatches and other northern species are heading south en masse searching for food due to a poor conifer seed crop in their normal wintering grounds across the Northern United States and southern Canada.  This species-wide southward movement in response to limited food is called an irruption.  Until about a month ago I'd only seen a Red-breasted Nuthatch once before -- in Yellowstone Park, Wyoming.  Now one visits my North Carolina backyard about every 30 minutes, digging another morsel of food from the suet feeder.

Red-breasted Nuthatch eating suet, November 19 2012

A Red-Breasted Nuthatch high above in a Longleaf Pine tree, the first-ever look at this bird in my backyard!

At least one other bird I'd never seen locally is also showing up with some measure of regularity -- the Dark-eyed Junco.  Now I realize for probably four-fifths of the bird watchers in North America the Dark-eyed Junco is one of the most common winter birds seen.  However in the five years I've been watching birds in my backyard one had never shown up until now.  The Juncos act a lot like White-throated Sparrows, seldom flying but instead walking across the backyard from brush or nearby bushes to feed on sunflower seeds dropped on the ground.  Their handsome gray and white coloring is a real treat to see!

The first time I saw a Dark-eyed Junco in my backyard.  He's on top of my shed peering down at the feeders below.

He brought a friend!  Two Dark-eyed Juncos are gleaning sunflower seeds off the ground near the feeders.

American Goldfinch

A bird whose numbers really varies from winter to winter here is the American Goldfinch.  Some winters they are THE most numerous bird I see.  I still remember a day in January 2011 when two-dozen of them were clustered on and near the feeders at one time.  Other times like last year (the 2011-2012 winter) we hardly had any at all.

On the chart below you can see the annual frequency of occurrence of American Goldfinches in six counties that make up the Cape Fear coastal region of North Carolina.  It's easy to immediately notice American Goldfinches are almost exclusively a winter species here, arriving in November and December and departing in April.  Within this typical seasonality another variation is apparent:  the 2011-2012 winter had very few American Goldfinches present in this six-county region with only 10-20 percent of eBird checklists including the species.  This current winter (2012-2013) American Goldfinch numbers are up and as of the data cutoff on this chart (November 20, 2012) there are more Goldfinches here than in any of the previous several years.

eBird graphical output showing the frequency of American Goldfinches in North Carolina's Cape Fear
Region from 2010 through November 2012.

Another pleasant surprise this Fall has been the sheer number of bird species I can observe in my backyard.  In a typical 30-60 minute sitting it's not unusual to see 20 species, up from a typical 12-15 species this same time last year.  Part of this increase might be I'm becoming a more-proficient bird watcher with time, but most of it I'm sure is there are simply more bird species visiting here.  On this morning's checklist I observed 24 species, annotated below from Cornell University's eBird website:

1	Red-tailed Hawk being harassed by a very coordinated flock of ~50 Starlings
8	Mourning Dove
1	Downy Woodpecker Age & Sex Juvenile Immature Adult Age Unknown Male Female 1 Sex Unknown
1	Blue Jay heard only
1	American Crow
4	Fish Crow
3	Carolina Chickadee
2	Tufted Titmouse
1	Red-breasted Nuthatch
1	Carolina Wren
115	American Robin
2	Northern Mockingbird
1	Brown Thrasher
325	European Starling ~200 in this picture; an additional ~125 in nearby trees
1	Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
2	Chipping Sparrow
1	Song Sparrow
1	White-throated Sparrow
2	Northern Cardinal Age & Sex Juvenile Immature Adult Age Unknown Male 1 Female 1 Sex Unknown
7	Red-winged Blackbird
17	Common Grackle
7	House Finch Age & Sex Juvenile Immature Adult Age Unknown Male 3 Female 4 Sex Unknown
2	American Goldfinch
5	House Sparrow Age & Sex Juvenile Immature Adult Age Unknown Male 2 Female 3 Sex Unknown