How do little birds stay warm in winter?
May 9, 2010 by
Filed under canada golf vacation
I live in Ottawa, Canada and it gets well below freezing here, with snow and ice. Yet I see little birds hopping and flitting around, apparently not caring that it’s cold. They’re scarcely bigger than a golf ball – how do they stay warm?
No, I mean little birds, not baby birds. Like little finches.
If by little birds you mean young birds, then theu aren’t so young by the time winter comes. They are adult birds!
layers of feathers
Some little birds have evolved natural insulation so they don’t have to migrate. Others have learned to take shelter and hunker down through the worst of the cold and come out when the temperature is tolerable.
Since most buildings have heat leakage and crannies on the roofs, canopies, etc., there are plenty of places for these birds to seek refuge. Usually the first cold snap will see some die who didn’t choose wisely, but after that few birds die from the cold.
They shake their feather and let the air come into their feather and later the air change into steam so they get warm.
Most will migrate to warmer temperatures, and feathers act as an insulator…when fluffed up air gets under them and provides them with warmth.