What am I doing wrong? I cleaned my feeders thoroughly and filled them with good quality seed. Why are there no birds coming to my backyard? I had lots of birds last year.

I’ve been asked a variant of this question a number of times over the past few weeks, so I will try to answer in a column.

First, the wild seed and fruit crop was not as abundant as it was last year, so there is less food in this part of the province for wintering birds. Numbers of birds tallied on the 2009 Christmas Bird Count were generally lower than average.

Compared to last year, there are many fewer feeder birds. Winter 2009 saw an irruption of northern finches. Pine siskins arrived in mid-January by the hundreds. TheNature Notescolumn from Jan. 16, 2009 reported 100 pine siskins at my feeder while I was writing the column. There were also good numbers of common redpolls and white-winged crossbills in winter 2009.

These three species are “irruptive”. That means that they only come this far south in winters when the seed crop is poor in the boreal forest. They only stay if there is food for them here. If the southern Ontario seed crop is not adequate, they continue farther south.

Several years ago, when there was an irruption of pine siskins, I banded some in my garden in the autumn. The following spring, one of these banded birds was recovered in northwestern Georgia.

This year, there must be ample food in the north, since finches have been quite scarce this winter. I have seen no redpolls or crossbills and had only one or two siskins at the feeder in November. While the absence of winter finches can be disappointing for the human observer in southern Ontario, it probably means that the birds are doing all right. This is a bit hard to determine since these species spend most of the time in places where there are very few human observers.

There are American goldfinches coming to my feeder, but the highest numbers have been around 25 birds.

So far, there has been very little snow cover this winter. This means that birds such as mourning doves which forage on harvested corn and soybean fields can still feed in these fields. In winters with deep snow, the short-legged doves are more dependent on feeders where the seed is above the snow.

Dark-eyed juncos have been scarce in my yard, although there are a few in the neighbourhood. They, too, are ground foragers, and can find ample food in this open winter without visiting feeders.

Even European starlings have not been numerous. They can get to the bare ground to search for insects or seed. As well, a large proportion of starlings’ winter food is fruit.

Perhaps bird-eating raptors are present in the neighbourhood. The two smaller accipiters, sharp-shinned hawks and Cooper’s hawks, frequently hunt at bird feeders. I have seen both in my neighbourhood. Although I don’t see them often, that doesn’t mean that they are not around. They frequently hunt at dawn and dusk when low light levels make them hard to detect.

So far, I’ve only seen one Cooper’s hawk, on one occasion, in my yard. All the small birds are very nervous, though. They dive into the bushes at the slightest motion inside a window. This would indicate that the yard is probably being hunted regularly.

Merlins, small falcons, are rare in the winter, but there may still be a few around. These raptors, too, prey on smaller birds.

Other species of birds at my feeders regularly include northern cardinals, black-capped chickadees, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers and white-breasted nuthatches. These seem to be present in “normal” numbers. If anything, there are more cardinals than are usually here.

Feeder watching has not been very exciting so far this winter. Birds will probably turn up if there is snow, so keep your feeders clean and full.