Cold Out? Tips from the Birds
In Seattle, we're experiencing a cold snap, with temperatures in the teens and 20s. We're rewarded with winter-crisp blue skies, a welcome from our weeks of smeared-gray storm clouds, but really, it's cold here. When the weather is particular harsh (whether hot, windy, stormy, or icy), I turn my eyes to the sky, the trees, and the ground, and consider the adaptations of birds in winter.
While many birds take the migratory way out, our resident birds go about their daily lives regardless of the weather. Crow, American Robin, Black-Capped Chickadee, and various waterfowl employ a variety of biological strategies to stay warm as the mercury drops. Some of these strategies include:
While many birds take the migratory way out, our resident birds go about their daily lives regardless of the weather. Crow, American Robin, Black-Capped Chickadee, and various waterfowl employ a variety of biological strategies to stay warm as the mercury drops. Some of these strategies include:
- Engaging piloerection of their feathers (think of a chickadee standing with her feathers puffed up)
- Sharing communal roosts to pool body heat with other birds
- Going into a state of torpor, where metabolism, heart rate, and other body functions drop
- Keeping feet from freezing with a network of veins and arteries in their feet and legs, known as rete mirabile (imagine ducks paddling around an icy pond)
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