By Jeanine Barone
Illustrations by Jada Fitch
From our February 2025 issue
If you’ve ever wondered at a ruby-red cardinal or black-capped chickadee flitting about your frozen yard, you know that winter bird-watching is something to crow about. “Some species that can be overlooked in the summer absolutely pop in the snow, like the brilliant blues of an eastern bluebird,” Maine Audubon staff naturalist Doug Hitchcox says. Picture those same species juxtaposed with a glittering, ice-covered forest or vast swath of frosty meadow and you’ve hit upon the magic of winter birding in Maine. This time of year, birds are easier to spot on bare branches. Some birds also flock together in conspicuous groups, sometimes made up of multiple species, to hunt for food, defend themselves against predators, and provide warmth in a roost. Plus, while less hearty souls opt to stay cooped up for the season, you’ll have the run of some prime viewing spots. If you’re inclined to head out, take a gander at our fledgling’s field guide.
Black-Capped Chickadee
Look for: The little calico cuties beyond your birdfeeder, in forests and parks, where the year-round Mainers dart from tree to tree, often leading flocks of nuthatches, creepers, titmice, and woodpeckers.
Listen for: The familiar chick-a-dee-dee-dee indicating a predator has been spotted. Increasing numbers of dee notes announce greater threats, while a high-pitched see is more or less an avian fire alarm.
Dark-Eyed Junco
Look for: Slate-colored sparrows with bright-white bellies and outer tail feathers, hopping around trees and shrubs in the forest, searching for fallen seeds. After winging in from Canada in late fall, juncos often team up with other sparrows, as well as cardinals, finches, and mourning doves, to forage.
Listen for: High, short, chipping notes as the birds peck about.
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Look for: Black- or gray-crowned, bluish-gray-and-white birds, which can be spotted year-round in deciduous forests, often perched upside down or sideways on tree trunks, probing for insects. Their common name derives from a practice of ramming nuts into tree bark, then striking them with their sharp bills to “hatch” the seeds.
Listen for: A persistent, nasally yank-yank or yank-yank-yank, similar to a sheep’s bleat.
Great Cormorant
Look for: Inky, three-foot-tall seabirds with yellow around their bills, perched on coastal ledges or diving for bottom-dwelling fish. After a meal, the birds, which typically hail from Canada, stand Frankenstein-like on the shoreline, drying their outstretched wings.
Listen for: Whooshing, goose-like wingbeats when the cormorants take flight.
Snow Bunting
Look for: Pearly little ground dwellers with tawny topcoats acquired just before they arrive in Maine from the Arctic, allowing them to blend in on beaches and windswept blueberry barrens. Nicknamed Snowflakes, they swirl through the air in flocks, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, before settling on land.
Listen for: A cacophony of husky rattling emanating from flying buntings.
Common Eider
Look for: The Northern Hemisphere’s largest ducks. The black-and-white males and all-brown females can be found off the Maine coast all year but are most conspicuous in winter, when they converge by the thousands in flocks floating just offshore.
Listen for: The loud cooing of courting males (who notably take no part in chick rearing).
Species Spotting
Four places to experience Maine’s avian abundance.
A half-dozen mostly gentle paths suitable for walking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing wind through 229 acres encompassing hemlock and beech forests, wetlands, and a 191-acre pond. Free guided birding walks are offered weekly (and at Gilsland Farm, below) throughout the year. 216 Fields Pond Rd., Holden. 207-989-2591.
Three flat trails immerse visitors in meadows, wetlands, and woods fanned out across 65 acres. Off the West Meadow Trail, two wooden blinds perched on a bluff provide bird’s-eye views of waterfowl in the Presumpscot estuary. 20 Gilsland Farm Rd., Falmouth. 207-781-2330.
Lagoons, wetlands, and forest nestle between sandy beaches on the eastern edge of this 770-acre park and the Little River to the west. Follow the shore from the furrowed-granite Griffith Head to Todd’s Point, where you can access a pair of easy, wooded trails (one of them groomed for Nordic skiing). 375 Seguinland Rd., Georgetown. 207-371-2303.
The Songo River bisects this 1,400-acre park on Maine’s second-largest lake. On the forested eastern flank are five and a half miles of easy-to-moderate groomed cross-country skiing and snowshoeing trails, and to the west are six miles of ungroomed paths weaving past a meadow and bog. 11 Park Access Rd., Casco. 207-693-6231.
