As summer winds down many Northern Michigan birds start flying south for the winter. Two of the birds shown here fly south and one bird stays in Northern Michigan all year long. If you have a bird feeder, you have probably seen all three of them. Do you know which birds leave for warmer weather and which bird stays all winter? Read the answers and click on the Baltimore Oriole link below to download a picture that you can color with crayons or markers.
The Birds
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak: This bird heads south in September and early October and returns to the North before mid-May. The fat beak on this bird proves it’s mostly a seed eater—a big, strong beak for breaking seeds. But the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak also eats fruits.
Chickadee: This beautiful little bird stays in the North all year. In winter, Chickadees survive by eating seeds and probe trees for the larva of insects.
Baltimore Orioles: This orange and black bird with the marvelous watery song heads south by Labor Day and returns in early May. It eats mostly fruit during its winters in Central America and northern South America, but up here Orioles also eat a lot of insects.
Did You Know?
Pound for pound, insects have four times the protein of beef. That’s why migrating birds eat so many bugs, to store up fat for their long flights and to give insects to their babies to help them grow fast and healthy.