Wintering Birds in Corn Stubble

     Thousands of acres of corn are grown in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to feed to cows and horses in barns during winter.  Most corn fields are harvested by late October, some of them to the ground, while others have foot-long stubble.  Flocks of wintering, open country birds, including horned larks, rock pigeons, mourning doves, American crows, mallard ducks and Canada geese, eat much of the corn kernels and bits of corn lying in the fields that were cut to the ground, making those fields more interesting.
     And a small variety of wintering, adaptable woods and thicket birds get a limited variety of food in fields of corn stubble located near woods and thickets, making those fields even more intriguing.  Those species of attractive birds, too, eat bits of corn, but also various weed and grass seeds, and invertebrates, whenever those tiny critters are active during winter.  Each kind of bird has its specific choice, or choices, of foods, reducing competition for that sustenance.
     It's always surprising to see woodpeckers in corn stubble, but three species are there if their woodland habitat is near that stubble.  Downy woodpeckers are there mostly to chip into the stubble, as they do trees, to extract insects hiding in them.  Downies prop themselves upright on the cut corn stalks with their stiff tail feathers as they chisel into that stubble.  Red-bellied woodpeckers and northern flickers are in the fields to pick up bits of corn kernels.  Those handsome birds repeatedly undulate into the fields, pick up a bit of corn and fly back to a tree of a woods to eat it.  But they wouldn't ignore an invertebrate when spotted. 
     Beautiful blue jays swoop out to corn stubble from a woodland and land on the ground.  There they quickly toss down bits of corn, seeds and invertebrates while nervously watching for danger.  After several seconds of that they are full and power back to the woods to rest and digest.
     Groups of wild turkeys and single white-breasted nuthatches from nearby woods also eat pieces of corn.  The turkeys stay in the fields until full, but the nuthatches each pick up one bit of corn at a time, fly to their nearby woods to eat it in comparative safety, then fly back for another, and another.
     Carolina chickadees and tufted titmice flit into corn stubble from nearby woodlands to ingest invertebrates and their eggs they find in the stubby stalks.  But when filled, back to their woodsy home they go.
     Several types of wintering thicket birds gather in little groups in neighboring fields of corn stubble to feed on weed and grass seeds, bits of corn and invertebrates, depending on the species.  Northern cardinals, song sparrows, house finches and dark-eyed juncos consume the seeds of various weeds and grasses, as well as tiny pieces of corn.  But on warmer winter afternoons, little companies of lovely eastern bluebirds and individual, gray northern mockingbirds perch on the corn stubble and watch for active invertebrates, particularly on the sun-warmed ground.
     Interestingly, a few fields of corn are not harvested through much of winter.  The stalks stand tall, but dead, except the kernels.  The dried, yellow leaves of the stalks flutter and rustle in the cold wind.  Those corn fields provide shelter for these same types of birds as they feed in them through winter, making those fields interesting to experience. 
     Watch corn stubble fields near woods and thickets in winter.  Some of them can be fascinating at times.