April 10, 2020 - Common Redpolls

This was a good year to see Common Redpolls at our northern Minnesota home. We had a flock of 40 or 50 of them visiting our feeders.

RedpollCommonDunningLakeItascaCounty20220401

Redpolls are 5¼ inches long, the same size as Black-capped Chickadees. They have streaky brown and white feathers on their backs and faces. Note the yellow beak with a dark stripe on top of the upper mandible. There is also a dark streak on the underside of the lower mandible, but that is harder to see. The red feathers on the breast of this bird indicate that it’s an adult male.

RedpollCommonmaleDunningLakeItascaCounty20220401

This Redpoll doesn’t have a red breast, but we still can’t be sure it’s a female. Males don’t get the red breast feathers until their second year, so this could be a first-year male.

RedpollCommonDunningLakeItascaCounty20220401

Redpolls breed in the far northern parts of North America and usually spend the winter in Canada. If they can’t find enough food in Canada, they will move south into the northern United States. This is apparently one of those lean years, because we are seeing a lot of them in Minnesota.

RedpollCommonDunningLakeItascaCounty20220401

I enlarged this photo to show the shape of a Redpoll’s beak. Notice how the lower mandible has a groove in it so that the upper mandible can fit right into that groove.

RedpollCommonmouthopenDunningLakeItascaCounty20220330