It can be difficult to spend time outdoors on winter days. Even walking between the front door and the car is sometimes a painful experience that freezes any exposed skin on contact. At times like these, many wonder, “How do birds survive winter in Canada?”
Even though they are some of the lightest-weight animals, Canadian birds keep flying and chirping all winter. One reason they survive so well is that they spend September and October preparing for winter weather. Here is what birds are up to in Richmond Hill this fall.
Understanding a Bird’s Lifestyle
It’s amazing that a warm-blooded animal weighing less than 100 grams sleeps outdoors in freezing temperatures. What do birds do in winter? To understand the answer to this question, it is necessary to consider a bird’s reliance on seasonal cycles.
Unlike humans, who surround themselves with artificial light from computers, streetlights, and overhead bulbs, birds are sensitive to natural changes in day length. The lessening hours of sunlight they perceive as autumn progresses give birds the cues they need to survive.
Bird Behaviours Change in Fall
While following their instincts, birds do many unusual things to prepare for winter weather. Unfortunately, some of these behaviours signal a need for bird removal in Richmond Hill.
Eating More
Once the breeding season is over, birds turn their attention away from feeding hungry babies to putting as much food as possible into their own mouths. Doing so causes them to store fat, which provides both insulation against the cold and a reserve of energy.
Moulting
With the extra nutrition available from eating so much, a bird’s body has the resources to drop its old, worn-out feathers and replace them with new ones. These fall plumes are often more cryptic than their showy springtime feathers, helping them to hide from predators.
Flocking
Male birds who defended their territories all summer give up their boundary patrols and associate with other birds again. Some birds form small, mixed-species flocks that follow shifting food resources together. Others, such as European starlings, join members of their own species to form flocks of up to tens of thousands of birds.
Roosting together
Birds need shelter to survive cold and wet winter weather. For some, this means a small tree cavity or a perch near the trunk of a bushy evergreen. For European starlings, it means returning to a communal roost site each evening and huddling together for warmth. These large and messy roosts are one reason people contact Skedaddle for bird removal services.
Migrating
Birds experience a migratory restlessness during fall that keeps them awake at night and gives even captive birds an irresistible urge to head south. Some insect-eaters fly from Ontario all the way to South America. Others migrate only a short distance from Northern to Southern Canada.
Skedaddle Provides Fall and Winter Bird Removal in Richmond Hill
After a thorough evaluation of how and why birds are using your property, Skedaddle technicians will work with you to eliminate sources of food and shelter you may not be aware of. Unlike other companies, Skedaddle does not advocate harming birds in the process of removing them. Because we understand what attracts birds, we can instead use humane techniques to make the birds feed and roost elsewhere.
Technicians will then clean up any bird droppings and sanitize the area, no matter how big. Finally, they will seal openings and install physical and visual deterrents to keep the birds from coming back.
Don’t let birds make a mess of your property this winter. Contact Skedaddle today by phone for humane bird removal services.
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