The Courage of Birds: Preface and Introduction

Preface
I t was close to dinnertime. I’d spent the day hunting in the

woods behind my parents’ North Jersey home. The snow that
had started around midday was falling heavily now, in small,
fluffy flakes that veiled the comforting glow of the lights cast
from our suburban home, now a mere hundred yards away. Paus-
ing by the buffering shelter of a skirt of pin oak branches, I was
startled by the sudden appearance of a Blue Jay that materialized
out of the storm and fused itself to the tree’s curtain of branches.
The bird was close enough that I might have touched it with the
barrels of the shotgun cradled in my arms. Wild birds do not
typically offer this degree of intimacy, so I was brought to won-
der what the jay was up to.Was it sick? Disoriented by the storm?
As snow coated us, the bird studied me with penetrating eyes.
Thirty seconds later, its decision made, the jay abruptly
turned, tucked its head beneath the branches, and the rest of the
bird followed.
It’s going to roost, I realized, and with this insight, a shiver ran
the length of my body that had nothing to do with the snow or
the cold. The bird had just entrusted me with its most closely
guarded secret, the location of the place it would spend the
night. Never before nor since have I been granted such confi-
dence from a wild creature. But this encounter more than fifty
years ago was the catalyst that gave rise to my fascination with
birds in winter, and this book.
It must take great courage to be a bird, or great faith. In these
pages, I extol and expound upon those virtues. In The Courage of
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T h e C o u r ag e o f B i r d s
Birds, David Sibley and I hope to impart an awareness and appre-

ciation for the millions of birds that enliven our winter landscape
and instill an understanding of their needs and our obligation to
them as stewards of the Earth. The primary focus of this book is
the winter lives of North America’s breeding birds (defined here
as birds nesting in Canada, Alaska, and the contiguous 48 states
north of the Mexican border—a total of approximately 695
species). It does not include the birds of Hawaii or Southern
Hemisphere oceanic birds that spend the austral winter (our
summer) in our continental waters. The book’s special focus is
the 47 hardiest of species that remain in our Arctic or Boreal
region all winter (designated in this book as Tier 1 species). Also
singled out for discussion are the 510 species that breed in North
America and elect to remain here through the winter (Tier 2
species). Most of these short-distance migrants travel but a few
hundred miles to more temperate parts of North America,
including southern Canada, much of the lower 48 states, north-
ern Mexico, and the Bahamas. The range of these hardy winter
residents extends from your backyard to the rim of the Arctic ice
and beyond. Far from frail creatures at the mercy of their envi-
ronment, birds have proven themselves to be hardy survivors
whose fortitude and ingenuity permit them to surmount winter’s
challenges.This book is David Sibley and my tribute to them and
the culmination of two lifetimes of study that began in our
youths in the natural areas close to our North Jersey and Con-
necticut homes. While both of us have traveled widely in search
of birds, North America’s winter birds continue to captivate us.
xiv
Introduction
I n the summer of 2005, Warner Brothers released a French

filmmaker’s feature-length nature documentary that drew
thousands of viewers to theaters and grossed $127,000,000 in
revenue. The film was called March of the Penguins, and it
recounted the remarkable story of the breeding strategy of the
Emperor Penguin—a sturdy and stately (four-foot tall) bird
specialized to face down the challenges of the long Antarctic
winter to raise their young—a story of survival-against-odds,
parental devotion, fortitude, and the sheer tenacity of life (all the
stuff great stories, and feature films, are made of ). The success of
this mere nature documentary, while shocking to many review-
ers, came as no surprise to those of us in the business of bringing
people and nature together. While not surprised by the acclaim
accorded the film, as an environmental educator and lifelong
student of birds, I was somewhat miffed.
Why? I cried in my soul. Why did these filmmakers feel
compelled to journey to the opposite end of the planet to doc-
ument the winter coping strategies of birds when such epic
dramas are played out, annually, here in the Northern Hemi-
sphere, some as close as our own backyards?
In our hemisphere, too, birds are specialized to face down the
hardships of winter.These include the Spectacled Eider, a goggle-
eyed sea duck that spends the Arctic winter massed in leads of
open water in the frozen Bering Sea. Another winter champion
is the Rock Ptarmigan, a snow-colored grouse that endures two
months of total darkness and temperatures more than fifty degrees
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T h e C o u r ag e o f B i r d s
below zero. Then, there is Gyrfalcon, a robust raptor that spends

the prolonged northern winter patrolling the rim of the Arctic
ice cap in search of prey. And not to be forgotten, the tiny chick-
adees coming to your feeder engage in a daily dance with death
in the hope of seeing another spring, while their dance partner,
the bird-eating Sharp-shinned Hawk, struggles to do the same.
It was precisely the avoidance of predators that prompted
Emperor Penguins to embrace the extreme breeding strategy
that brought them recognition and fame. Yet the winsome and
widespread chickadees are willing to face the challenges imposed
by both predators and winter’s hardships head on, and they are
not alone. Nearly 700 of North America’s bird species have
strategies and specializations that permit them to vault seasons
and move their genetic dowry forward. This book is their story:
a real-life documentary played out every day as winter closes its
grip over the Northern Hemisphere in your own backyard.
Welcome to winter, nature’s proving ground, where there is
no prize for second place during these four months. Across the
Northern Hemisphere, it’s “survivor take all.”
You have front row seating to the greatest drama on Earth,
and The Courage of Birds is your playbill.

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Preface

I t was close to dinnertime. I’d spent the day hunting in the

Birds, David Sibley and I hope to impart an awareness and appre-

I n the summer of 2005, Warner Brothers released a French

below zero. Then, there is Gyrfalcon, a robust raptor that spends

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