from "Wild About Birds, The DNR Bird Feeding Guide"
Redpolls are small winter vistors characterized by tiny bodies, soft grayish striping and beautiful rose-colored highlights. Redpolls don't travelin small numbers; they're likely to swarm in by the dozens. Usually they sit quietly in the top of a nearby tree, watching the feeding station. When all seems well, they come fluttering out of the treetops like falling leaves.
A female redpoll has a black chin spot and a dark reddish patch on the top of her head. A male has a reddish cap, but is best known for the stunning rose-red marking on his breast. Male house finches are slightly larger than redpolls and have more of an orange-red breast coloring. Male purple finches are much larger than redpolls and have red-purple coloring.
Redpolls are split into two species: common redpolls and hoary redpolls. Hoary redpolls are much whiter than common redpolls, with pure white or rosy-white rumps that don't have streaking or striping.
Redpolls nest in the birch forests, low thickets and shrublands of arctic and subarctic regions of Canada, the Northwest Territories and Alaska.
Most redpolls only migrate to southern Canada and are uncommon in the United States. Sometimes, however, redpolls appear at Midwestern winter feeding stations. In some years they show up as early as October. In other years, they show up in mid-January and stay through early April. This unpredictability is characteristic of many boreal birds whose numbers fluctuate with the clyclical changes in abundance of natural foods.
Seeds of the tamarack, alder, elm, birch and others trees are food for the redpolls. They eat the seeds of "weeds" like evening primrose, ragweed, pigweed, smartweed, lambs' quarters, goosefoot and foxtail. They also eat tiny insects, insect larvae and insect eggs.
A redpoll's tiny bill is well suited to feeding at cylindrical feeders. If you wish to attract these birds, mix Niger thistle seed with peanut hearts and sunflower chips in a cylindrical thistle feeder. The feeder should have small feeder holes that are no more than 1/4 inch in diameter.
When many redpolls are present, try spreading Niger thistle on the ground under thistle feeders or on top of black oil sunflower feeds in tray feeders. This provides more room for the swarm of little birds.
---1995 State of Minnesota, Department of Natural Resources. "Wild About Birds, The DNR Bird Feeding Guide", Carrol L. Henderson
