Help Tyler Hoar the finch forecaster and the rest of the team at the Finch Research Network (FiRN) predict the winter irruptions of finches by assessing their food availability.

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for wanting to be part of the finch forecasting team and helping provide cone crop information. We have started an inaturalist project to supplement the form that Tyler Hoar, finch forecaster extraordinaire, sends out each summer.

We are only looking for qualitative data: a ranking of food crops ranging from None (0), to Very Poor(1-2), Poor(3-4), Average/Fair (5-6), Good (7-8), Excellent (9-10), and Bumper(11). As for what an observer thinks is average/heavy varies between each observer, so no worries, we are using all information to paint the big picture of what we can hopefully look forward to each fall and winter. For most species (minus the hard-coned pines like red, jack, pitch), mainly rank the food crop using four quadrants in the upper half of the tree. And one of the main things to keep in mind is that when observing an Excellent (aka heavy or bumber) crop, the branches will look covered with cones and berries, and weighed or bent down….and during such years the food crop will extend to the lower half of the tree. For “bumper” crops there are so many cones/berries it looks like a strong gust will snap the branches, or just the weight of the cones/berries look like they eventually snap the branch.

Please rate seed crops for your area: scale of (0-11)

For guidance on A Crossbill’s Guide to Conifers of the Eastern Forest”, please see the following article on the Finch Research Network website: https://finchnetwork.org/a-crossbills-guide-to-conifers-of-the-northeastern-forest

Some tips and tricks to keep in mind as we continue to refine the methods to becoming part of the Finch Forecasting Network team are:

1) Have fun, and don’t get too caught up in counting the specific number of cones/fruit. Again, we are looking for qualitative ranking data. The more we collect, the more powerful and accurate the data will be.

2) Take lots and lots of photos. When taking photos of the fruit/cone/seed crop, analyze the area holistically. Be sure not to just take photos or rank the trees that have food—it’s important to also look at and take photos of a few trees that represent the food crop in the area. With that, negative data (trees with no food) also carries value.

3) Treat each species separately. Don’t compare fruit on a mountain ash to a samara seed crop on a maple species. Don’t compare a cone crop on a hemlock (tiny cones), to cones found on a white pine (very large) or red pine (can come in several ages). Try to get some close ups of cones or fruit as well, especially where the cones or fruit are small like with hemlocks and tamaracks. For white pines, Norway spruce and native spruces, cell phone photos often will do, but for hemlocks and larches (tamarack) a camera is helpful!

4) When you’re observing hard pines (red, pitch, jack, Japanese black, loblolly etc.), be sure to take pictures of the cones so you can get a good handle on the ages of cones and what cones might have seed. For these hard-coned pines, we rate cones that are new (reddish) and closed, new and open (still reddish), old and closed (brown), and old and open separately. You can also have green cones (that will ripen several months later in late winter/spring, darker brown cones (seen 1-2 years after the cone developed), to even grayish-brown cones (they are old and might very well not have any viable or reachable seed). Rate the current crop based on lighter to darker brown cones.

5) Take photos and more photos and upload with your assessment to iNaturalist here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/finch-forecast-food-assessment

Here are the rankings again of food crops on a scale of 0-11: None (0), to Very Poor(1-2), Poor(3-4), Average/Fair (5-6), Good (7-8), Excellent (9-10), and Bumper(11). Just click “Add An Observation,” upload your photo, enter ID for tree species if you know it, and then select the option that best describes your assessment.

6) If you see a crossbill, redpoll or grosbeak foraging (or any of the finches listed in this article), please also enter the finch species into this iNaturalist project. Then, feel free add it to the Crossbill or Evening Grosbeak foraging iNaturalist's Finch Research Network projects as well if you have the time. We know everyone is busy, so any contributions are appreciated. See below for links.

While these projects have been ongoing for several months, we'd like to engage more people and show them the fun of keeping track of our finches and their food sources. The more photos, the better the data set will become over time. We hope that combined with our other projects, we’ll soon have a nice visual guide for each of the 15-20 tree species that boreal finches love as well. In time we’ll have a nice visual guide for each of the 15-20 tree species that the following finch species love!

We want to start with the following ~6 finch species:

Red Crossbill (see link for related project)
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/red-crossbill-foraging-in-north-america

White-winged Crossbill

Evening Grosbeak (see link for related project)
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/evening-grosbeak-foraging

Pine Grosbeak

Redpolls and Pine Siskin

Again, for guidance see A Crossbill’s Guide to Conifers of the Eastern Forest” article on the Finch Research Network website:
https://finchnetwork.org/a-crossbills-guide-to-conifers-of-the-northeastern-forest

None(0), Very Poor(1-2), Poor(3-4), Average/Fair (5-6), Good (7-8), Excellent (9-10), and Bumper(11).

Hierarchy for finch feeding in no particular order of importance:

White Spruce

Black Spruce

Red Spruce

Other Spruce species (Engelmann, Norway, Blue)

Tamarack

Eastern Hemlock

Eastern White Pine

Red Pine

Jack Pine

Other Pine Species (Pitch, Japanese Black Pine etc)

Northern White Cedar

Paper (aka White) Birch

Yellow Birch

Other Birches (Bog, Gray, Black)

Alder Species (Speckled, Red,Black)

Sugar Maple

Box Elder

Other Maples (Red, Black)

Project Icon Photo Jay McGowan less ↑