April 5, 2015 - Redpolls

About two weeks after we got back from Florida, Diana and I were at our home in northern Minnesota. This was a good winter for seeing Common Redpolls in Minnesota. They nest in Canada and move south during winter if food is scarce north of the border. They are cute little birds with their black bibs and red caps. This one has very little red on its chest and belly so it’s probably a female.

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This Redpoll has lots of red on its chest and belly so it’s a male. The amount of red varies a lot on these birds. It’s not always so obvious that you are looking at a male or a female but this one leaves no doubt.

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One day that weekend we had some snow but the temperature warmed up and the snow was all gone by noon.

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When I looked closely at my photos, I found this Redpoll had orange feathers on its head. I don’t remember seeing this before. I searched the Internet and found a few instances of Redpolls with orange feathers but no explanation for it. Sometimes variations in feather color are caused by eating particular foods. If anyone knows why some Redpolls have orange feathers, I would love to hear about it.

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Here’s another Redpoll that has only yellowish feathers on its head.

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Most of the Redpolls that we see are Common Redpolls. But there is another species, Hoary Redpoll, which is a rare visitor to Minnesota. They look a lot like Common Redpolls but are whiter and sometimes described as “frosty” looking. It can be hard to tell a Hoary Redpoll from a Common Redpoll. However, on the underside of this bird, especially under the tail, there are pure white feathers with no brown streaking. That is a definite field mark of a Hoary Redpoll.

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