COMMON REDPOLL 415 



made for frequent shifts in the accessibility of food supplies but 

 never completely eliminated them. It seems likely that each topo- 

 graphic region will provide strikingly different conditions in this 

 respect. 



Behavior. — The common redpoll shares much of its behavior, 

 temperament, and voice characteristics with the other small cardueline 

 finches, not merely the other redpolls, but with the siskin and the 

 goldfinch as well. Close observation may disclose specific traits, 

 some of them diagnostic for each member of the group, but these are 

 difficult to describe and impossible to delimit. 



Restlessness is certainly one of the chief characteristics of the 

 redpoll in the open. Writing of its incessant activity, John V. Dennis 

 {in litt.), who banded and carefully observed redpolls in Sharon, 

 Mass., during the winter of 1949, says: "Even while feeding, the 

 individual bird would never remain for long in one spot. After 

 clinging to a weed stalk a few seconds, generally feeding with the 

 body held horizontal to the bending stem and sometimes head down- 

 ward, the bird would move on to another stalk, often just in advance 

 of the main flock. Then, as though impelled by an innate rhythm, 

 the flock would take wing again and the whole performance would be 

 repeated. This was always the method of feeding in the open. In- 

 stead of relying upon a sentinel or the alarm call of an observant 

 member of the flock, the redpolls take no chance, as it were, but fly 

 up with pulselike precision. 



*'But when feeding in a sheltered region, such as a feeding tray 

 near dense shrubbery, this instinct disappears. The flock loses its 

 cohesion. Individuals stay at the feeders as long as they please; they 

 come and go individually, unless an alarm sends them all away. 

 They are much less likely to take fright at the appearance of humans 

 than of birds of other species feeding with them." 



This disregard of humans, especially by birds in sizeable flocks, 

 is commonly mentioned in the literature and forms treasured memories 

 of those who have known the redpoUs any length of time. Mrs. 

 Kenneth B. Wetherbee (1937) records this as part of her banding 

 experience near Worcester, Mass., during the winter of 1935-36 and 

 adds: "They were alarmed only by a sudden movement. By moving 

 cautiously one could approach to within a few inches of them as they 

 fed, and they were but mildly concerned when a hand moved slowly 

 about among them * * *. As a rule they fed peacefully, packed as 

 closely as they could stand on the shelf, though occasionally one 

 would open its bill in an unfriendly attitude toward a newcomer 

 attempting to alight * * *." She actually captured redpolls by hand 

 and describes it thus: "The window was slowly raised, and a hand, 

 reached cautiously out, was carefully cupped about the desired 



