Wintering Roadside Fringillidae

     Fringillidae are a family of seed-eating birds, including sparrows, finches, grosbeaks and buntings.  Several species of this family winter in the Mid-Atlantic States because they find seeds and grain to eat, even when snow is on the ground.
     For an hour and a half one afternoon in late January, after a deep snowfall, I was treated to scores of sparrows and other fringillidae along farmland roadsides that bordered woodlots and thickets of trees, shrubs, vines, and tall weeds and grasses in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  These are human-made habitats where a variety of adaptable, seed-eating birds, in abundance, find shelter from weather and predators, and seeds and berries to eat in winter.  But these birds are not noticed much until snow covers the ground.  After a snowfall, however, we see how common they are in certain thickets in winter.      
     Those birds were easily seen while driving along rural roads because the deep snow cover forced them to eat seeds and tiny stones from thin strips of soil exposed along those roads by plowing.  The small stones, or grit, grind the seeds in the birds' powerful stomachs.
     White-throated sparrows were the most common of their kin along those roads, followed by song sparrows.  And there were little groups of dark-eyed juncos, American goldfinches, northern cardinals, white-crowned sparrows and tree sparrows in that arbitrary order of abundance.  And there also was one each of a towhee and a fox sparrow, helping diversify the species of fringillidae.
     All the sparrow species, except the juncos, are brown with darker streaking, plumage patterns that camouflage them in shrubbery and on the ground.  Those species are identified mostly by striking color patterns on their heads.  White-throated sparrows and white-crowned sparrows, for example, have black and white striped crowns.  The white-throats do have white throat patches.  Tree sparrows have red crowns.
     Sparrows are ground feeders, mostly, which is why they come to bared roadsides after a snowfall, to get exposed seeds and grit when snow covers the ground.  Many species of fringillidae dig backwards with both feet at once to expose seeds in the ground.
     As most birds do in cold weather, perched sparrows and their kin puff out their feathers.  Fluffed out feathers trap more air between them, air that is warmed by the birds' body heat and keeps them warmer.       
     These sparrows, and other kinds of wintering fringillidae, come to bird feeders to eat seeds and grain.  There we humans can admire the birds more closely, and daily.  But there, too, they are vulnerable to the attacks of sharp-shinned hawks and house cats.  Both these predators hide in vegetation for the right moment to kill an impaired bird, such as a partly blind house finch or an injured bird.  Those predators actually perform a service to the birds by eliminating the infirm.   
     Watch for various types of birds along roads after a deep snowfall.  They help make a ride more enjoyable and inspiring.