It's getting dark, and the snow is still falling. Our trees in the back are holding lots of
American Robin who are more than willing to pose for photographs and not fly away - their tolerance of me approaching must be inversely related to the temperature outside. I caught a couple of posed subjects, a robin and a
Cedar Waxwing. I didn't know what the smaller clump of feathers were until I downloaded my shots and saw the bright yellow band on the tail - a waxwing. The birds are all perched with the feathers ruffled in an obvious attempt to increase the
R-value of their natural insulation. A nice narrative about birds weathering the winter cold can be found
here, and another more lay version
here. By the way, I just restocked the bird feeders, and added a new peanut dispenser as well.
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| American Robin in the cold |
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| Cedar Waxwing |
The map above his found
here, and is found with the link above with the explanation of R-values. As you can see, Colorado falls in the 4th, 5th, and 6th of seven coldest regions in the continental United States - poor little birds.
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