Seeing a Purple Finch at your feeders is a real prize for many birders (photo by Warren Brooks). The new edition of Winter Bird Highlights is available online now, and you can download and print a PDF file if you prefer a hard copy.

The new 2022 edition of Winter Bird Highlights, which is the annual summary of the 2021-22 Project FeederWatch season is now available, providing insightful information about the abundance and distribution of the birds that visit our yards across the United States and Canada. Inside this new report, a wealth of information can be gleaned from the Regional Roundup that describes what was learned from last season’s FeederWatch counts, which includes lists of the 25 most common birds observed in each of the 7 regions, which includes Hawaii.

This new publication also features research that used behavioral interactions birders reported during Project FeederWatch observations, a profile of Northern Flickers wintering in Canada, a review of which native sparrows are most common in the different regions, and more. Overall, it’s especially interesting to review the top 25 birds and their flock size in your region, plus it is insightful to learn how species vary from region to region, from west to east and south to north.

This week, because the Winter Bird Highlights provides such a wealth of information for you to review and read, this article will be a bit shorter than usual, so we can simply refer you to the report itself. The full 2022 edition of Winter Bird Highlights is available online now, and you can also download and print a PDF file from WinterBirdHighlights2022.pdf (feederwatch.org)

Of course, you can also check on the this winter’s Project FeederWatch progress and get additional information, including how you can add your backyard bird observations to this year’s FeederWatch efforts at FeederWatch - Count Feeder Birds for Science