Q: One winter we had an amazingly well-built cardinal nest in a shrub outside our kitchen window. It held together as snow built up inside the bowl, and we often saw chickadees “bathing” in the snow-bowl, much as birds in summer fluff themselves up in soil or sand.
A: I am so envious of your opportunities to observe this chickadee behavior — I had no idea they took snow baths.

Rare bird?
Q: I had some very unusual-looking birds at my finch feeder in early January. Looking at my bird book, the only thing that comes close is a wheatear.
A: The photo you sent shows American goldfinches at your feeders, enjoying the nyger seed you provide. Many of us get confused by these little birds at this time of year, because they look so different in winter compared with summertime. In winter they’re more of a taupe color, with dramatic wing markings. These little birds move around in fall and winter, so you might not have noticed them at your feeders earlier. As spring approaches they’ll molt into their brighter plumage.

Hawk watching in St. Paul
Q: I’m hoping you can help me identify a hawk I occasionally see gliding between the houses in my St. Paul neighborhood. It’s mostly gray, a little bigger than a crow and with a white band at the end of its tail. The only one that comes close, in my bird book, is a gray hawk, but I know that’s not it. Any ideas?
A: You’ve provided some excellent identification tips (size, color and tail tips), leading me to suspect that a Cooper’s hawk is hunting over your neighborhood. These birds prey on other birds (and, sometimes, squirrels), from juncos to starlings, and are increasingly making their home in cities. Cooper’s hawks are beautifully designed for the lives they lead and it’s exciting to watch them swoop through the backyard.

Robins and fruit
Q: I still worry about the robins hanging around in winter, even though experts say they survive on fruit. But what fruit is still around in winter?
A: At this point in the winter there’s still a great deal of fruit out in nature. Robins that spend the winter here can be found eating crabapples, mountain ash berries, winterberries, rose hips and hackberries, among other things. They’ll try just about anything to see if it’s food. If you have robins around your backyard and would like to put out a treat for them, you could chop up some apple slices, raisins and/or frozen fruit and put it outside in a dish. They’ll eat these even if the fruit freezes.