On cold winter days, our backyard feeder, filled with black sunflower seed, gets a wide variety of visitors. Cardinals, chickadees, titmice, house finches, blue jays, nuthatches and goldfinches are among the most common; juncos and a variety of sparrows are also regular visitors, foraging beneath the feeder. And while the woodpeckers and Carolina wrens prefer the suet block, they also grab their fare share of seed.
As dusk descends on the neighborhood, most of these birds head off to their roosting areas to prepare for another frigid, winter night. But two of our regular visitors stick around late in the day and actually begin to peak in number as their cohorts depart. Northern cardinals and white-throated sparrows seem to prefer a late day meal; the cardinals gather in the adjacent magnolia, alternating their trips to the feeder while the white-throats scratch among the husk litter, searching for intact seed. If not scared away by an opossum or raccoon, both species will often remain until the last glow of dusk.
