Birds In Winter - Discover Nature (KRCG)

mdc.mo.gov

The Missouri Department of Conservation wants to help you to discover nature and learn how birds survive the extreme frigid temperatures.

A first defense against cold is feathers—nature's insulator.

Birds have as many as one-third more feathers in the winter as in the summer.

They fluff up their feathers in the winter and the cold, windy days. So they can trap more air and make more insulation against that cold and their skin and creating more trapped air that their body can heat. And it's just like us wearing a thicker coat when it gets colder.

When the mercury plummets, birds must also stoke their tiny furnaces by feeding almost constantly.
A drop of 20 degrees can double their metabolic rate.

Staying warm isn't all about food and feathers.

Roosting birds often tuck their bills into their feathers to reduce heat loss through their nostrils.

And ducks and geese crowd together in flocks.
Sometimes the flocks have so many birds, the heat from all of their bodies can keep the water they are swimming in from freezing.