Bird Nerd Podcast Ep. 11

October is here.

This is easily one of my favorite months of the year.

Temperatures have cooled, leaves are changing colors, prairies have become seas of golden grass, and birds are on the move.

This is the time of year when I really start preparing to see my winter birds.

There's one group in particular that has a few individuals that I would really like to see each winter, and those are the finches.

I've been able to see house finches and American goldfinches all through the summer as well, but there are some species in this group of birds that only occur in Iowa during the late fall and winter, and a couple of them are prone to eruptions.

Eruption is a word that we defined back in episode 4, the one about owls, but to reiterate, because repetition is good for learning, an eruption with an eye is defined as a sudden, forceful, or violent bursting or rushing into a place.

In the case of birds, an eruption is a behavior some species display where they occasionally move outside of their typical range in large numbers.

This episode about finches and eruptions was spurred on by an eruption event that seems to be happening right here in Iowa.

Red crossbills have been seen across the state lately in unusual numbers, and from what I can gather, unusually early.

So, hoping that this is a Red Crossbill eruption might be a sign of a great finchy winter.

Let's prepare by learning what these birds look and sound like.

I'm going to be using the Iowa Ornithologist Species Account List and their method of grouping the birds to organize this episode.

This list breaks birds down into three groups, Regularly Detected, birds seen in 7-10 of the last 10 years, Casually Detected, birds seen in 5-8 of the last 10 years, and Accidental, birds seen in 0-4 of the last 10 years.