Birder’s Notebook: Redpoll––The region’s most abundant songbird

You might wonder why I’ve waited so long to write about this energetic, noisy, little finch that is so common throughout the region. Redpolls are one of the few songbirds that are able to winter here, but unless there is a plentiful seed crop only a few actually stay. I’ve been waiting for a winter when flocks are bouncing occasionally over the winter landscape from one thicket to the next––and this is one of those winters.

Many of my recent outings have been brightened by chattering, undulating flocks of two to 60 redpolls passing overhead. Redpoll chitchat can be so loud and incessant that it may sound like a large flock is nearby when actually only a couple of birds are responsible. That two tiny redpolls can make such a racket always makes me chuckle.

Redpolls also make a distinctive contact call with rising intonation. That plaintive call also amuses me because it makes these incredibly tough and hardy little finches sound so wimpy.

Redpolls breed around the circumpolar north. In the Bering Strait region they are year-round residents, but their numbers vary greatly from year to year and between seasons.

During the breeding season they are the most common songbird of the region, occurring throughout the Seward Peninsula and on offshore islands in Norton Sound and the Bering Strait.

Redpolls usually breed in shrubby habitats, but beyond the breeding season and while feeding, they may range widely through other habitats including meadows and forests.

In winter, many redpolls migrate only as far as necessary to find adequate food. If seeds are plentiful across the Seward Peninsula and Alaska, many winter in the state.

In spring, flocks of returning redpolls often arrive in waves depending on weather and how far away they have wintered. In some years flocks appear in March, but more commonly in April.

Given such varied arrival times, it’s not surprising that nesting also begins over an extended period of time. Some pairs nest as early as April, and others not until July.

Peak egg laying is from the end of May to mid-June.

Often before leaf-out, the female builds the nest, usually in the crotch of a shrub but sometimes on the ground. It takes her about three days to make a nest of grasses interwoven with feathers and fur. The male stays nearby but does not help.

The female lays three to five eggs and incubates them for 11 days. Her mate brings her food and helps feed the nestlings.

Young redpolls leave the nest in about 14 days. Peak fledging on the Seward Peninsula is at end of June and in early July, when many shorttailed, streaky fledglings can be seen fluttering in the willows, begging for food.

Throughout July, redpoll flocks grow in size as fledglings and adults flock to feed, especially in alder patches.

Like other finches, redpolls are mainly seedeaters. The small seeds of sedges, grasses, alder and birch are favorites, supplemented with buds, leaves, flowering catkins and fruit. Spiders and insects and their larvae are also eaten, especially when feeding young.

These lively and acrobatic birds often hang upside down from catkins and buds and cling to slender branches to extract seeds and probe for insects. They may vigorously shake catkins, causing seeds to fall to the ground where they are easy to gather quickly.

Redpolls can store food in their throat pouches, which are expandable sections of the esophagus (diverticula). This allows them to quickly collect seeds in the open and retreat to safe, sheltered cover to regurgitate, husk and swallow their food. In severe weather this saves energy and provides a stash for snacking at night.

These busy little finches move around with exuberant energy and are very social. After the breeding season, large flocks of 50 or more redpolls are common and migratory flocks of hundreds may form. Male redpolls are dominant within flocks, but during the breeding season females dominate the pair.

Redpolls are common here through August but become fewer through September. After September they generally become scarce. Most migrate to places with more abundant food, with only a few remaining for the winter.

Flocks are nomadic outside of the breeding season, moving to find adequate food, especially to places where willow, alder and birch have had good seed production.

When seed crops fail across the north, redpolls may irrupt into wintering areas in southern Canada and the northern Lower 48 states.

At night flocks roost communally in dense vegetation or sometimes make shallow tunnels in soft snow, bursting out the roof to depart. This, I would love to see!

Redpolls readily follow and “mob” predators, making loud alarm calls to attract other redpolls and songbirds to call out and help harass nearby danger.

Two redpoll species are recognized, the hoary and the common redpoll. The hoary is the more northern species and the common redpoll is more frequently found in taiga habitats. Both species occur in this region, flock together and interbreed. This results in individuals that have characteristics of both species. Many are difficult or impossible to identify as one species or the other.

Some ornithologists have long believed that common and hoary redpolls are really one species. They have argued that the physical differences between the two species are a response to the environmental conditions encountered by populations at different latitudes, and have long urged that the two species be merged into one.

Research reported in 2021 found hoary and common redpolls to be genetically indistinguishable, supporting the argument that they are one species. The issue is likely to be presented to the North American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, the body that weighs such evidence and makes bird classification decisions. I would welcome this decision if it is made.

Redpolls are delightfully tame and tolerant of people and come readily to birdfeeders. Once while photographing near our feeder, a redpoll landed on my head and sang, its song vibrating down its legs into my skull. If I have a loose screw, now you know why!

HOARY REDPOLL – This male hoary redpoll has a pale pink wash on his chest and fluffy, unstreaked white breast feathers, which are diagnostic features of the species. “Hoary” refers to the frosty-looking plumage, and “redpoll” to the bird’s red cap. Hoary redpolls are the more northern redpoll species and have denser plumage, which provides extra insulation and gives them a puffier look than that of common redpolls. The hoary’s bill is slightly shorter too with more feathering at the base. In flight the whitish, unstreaked rump of a hoary redpoll catches the eye, in contrast to brown streaking on the rump of common redpolls. Both hoary and common redpolls are common in the region, but most redpolls that winter here are hoary redpolls. However, this winter some common redpolls have stayed too.

* COMMON REDPOLL – The raspberry red on the chest and sides of this redpoll is characteristic of male common redpolls. Common redpolls have a sleeker look and brown streaking on their sides that hoary redpolls lack. Individuals of both species are highly variable in the amount and intensity of the pink or red they show.

AT THE FEEDER – A feisty female redpoll is holding her own at the Banner Creek bird feeder it is sharing with a larger white-crowned sparrow and other redpolls. A male redpoll is feeding behind the sparrow and females are perched on the left and in flight. Redpolls are delightfully tame and comfortable around people and flock readily to bird feeders.