[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: roosting kinglets



Hello all,
On a related subject, do the birds use bird houses for shelter on wintry
nights? I saw bluebirds, chickadees, and titmice checking out the 2 bird
houses in my yard yesterday during the day.
Thanks,
Carol Williamson
Durham, NC
carolw@sandler-recht.com

Shantanu Phukan wrote:

> This evening I went looking for the wintering Pacific slope Flycatcher
> just as it was getting dark and the Western horizon was beginning to look
> leaden and wintry. No luck with the empid (I've seen them often in
> California) but I did see a heart-warming sight. I was looking up in a
> smallish (dogwood?) tree which had lots of tangled, dead twigs in it. As I
> watched three or four tiny birds flew in and without any ceremony lined
> themselves up in the thickest, darkest part of the dead matter. It ws dark
> enough by now that it was very hard to make out any details, but the
> high-pitched trilling, and small sze made them seem like Golden Crowned
> Kinglets. Once settled, they refused to budge. I examined the huddled
> group from every corner, and they were close enough that if I had jumped I
> could have touched them. But they had hunkered down for the night, their
> feathers fluffed. Eventually I did see the golden crown on one of them.
>         I have heard of communal roosting, and it makes much sense that
> small land-birds should do this to take advantage of each others' bodies
> to get through winter nights, but I had never actually seen small birds
> fly in and arrange themselves into a roosting formation and then become
> oblivious to the world as they fall asleep. It was marvellous. Does anyone
> know if all small landbirds roost in groups, huddling against each other,
> or only some species?
>
> *****************************************************
> SHANTANU PHUKAN
> Lecturer in Urdu-Hindi & Indian Literature
> University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
> Curriculum in Asian Studies
> Alumni Hall 413C
> Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599
>
> phukan@email.unc.edu
> 919-962-6825
> *****************************************************