Winter Finch Forecast

Every year at around this time, biologist Ron Pittaway gives his forecast for iruptive winter species, collectively referred to as "Winter Finches". These are species that typically spend their winter well north of New York City and the surrounding area. Ron recently announced his retirement and has passed the baton to Tyler Hoar.

There are several factors that influence the southward movement of these birds and this chart from the Cornell Lab does a nice job of illustrating the drivers:

You can read the entire article here. Tyler's forecast for the 2020-2021 winter season can be found here. The good news is that Brooklyn birders (well, NYC as a whole) should expect to see:

Purple Finch (already seeing some)
Evening Grosbeak
Red-breasted Nuthatch (already been seeing them)

Keep your feeders cleaned and well stock and you shall be rewarded with lots of hungry northerners this winter.