Common Redpoll

This, and a number of other, Common Redpolls were feeding on the ground in someone's yard along one of the backroads SW of Nanton, Alberta. Taken on 30 December 2012, when three of us drove all the backroads in the SW quadrant of the circle for the annual Audubon Nanton Christmas Bird Count. It was such a great day, in such beautiful scenery.

"As energetic as their electric zapping call notes would suggest, Common Redpolls are active foragers that travel in busy flocks. Look for them feeding on catkins in birch trees or visiting feeders in winter. These small finches of the arctic tundra and boreal forest migrate erratically, and they occasionally show up in large numbers as far south as the central U.S. During such irruption years, redpolls often congregate at bird feeders (particularly thistle or nyjer seed), allowing delightfully close looks."

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Redpoll/id