BIRDY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!

Texas has been arctic blasted and will continue to be for the next couple of days. While we can dust off our once-a-year winter coats and dig to the bottom of the drawer for a scarf, how do our wild feathered friends survive the cold?

Our Plateau wildlife biologists report that Ashe Juniper (cedar) actually provides excellent thermal cover for birds and other wildlife during cold weather -- a perfect reminder that low shrub cover or brush piles are important in wildlife management. (Also, on the other side of the weather coin, in Texas, where heat is a more common problem than cold, this cover also works well as shading to keep wildlife cool).

 The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a great article on how birds survive the winter. Did you know that some birds can lower their body temperature at night and enter regulated hypothermia, saving significant amounts of energy? Or that by fluffing their plumage, they trap air and create an insulating layer? For those of us with bird baths, should we be boiling water to pour on frozen baths? Get the bare bird facts here.

Fluffed plumage adds insulation during the cold of winter. Photo by Lee Kothmann.