Friends of Murphys Point Park

As we move closer to winter, many of our birds in the park have left but there are a few hardy species that call Murphys Point home for the winter. For this bird of the month, we will be talking about Red Crossbills, a strange finch with an exciting story this year. Generally, crossbills would be a rare find in this area, but since early August they have been a daily sight. This is because the conifers they feed on produce seeds unpredictably and this year have produced what is called a mast crop – an exceptional crop of cones due to the weather pattern. The invasion of Red Crossbills this year is unprecedented, and they are here feeding mostly on this mast crop of Eastern White Pine cones. If you see this super cool bird, look for their crossed bill they use to pry cone scales apart to get to the seeds! Crossbills are our only birds that will nest and raise young any month of the year, as long as there are lots of cones!!!

This small brown bird with light breast and thin bill lives in marshes and can be seen hopping in and amongst the reeds. The scientific name (Certhia palustris) translates to leaping through marshy shrubs! Because they like to hide away in the grasses of the marsh, they can be hard to see, but if you’re lucky, at dawn or dusk the males will come out to the top of the reeds to sing. A cool fact about these warbler-sized birds is that they are surprisingly fierce and will pierce the eggs of other birds in the area and even kill nestlings of birds that are competing for space! The males make several ‘dummy’ nests while the female constructs a separate nest where the young are actually raised.