The sun had just crested the wooded horizon when the first bird arrived at my feeder. Dramatic rays of golden sunlight were breaking through the trees and gilding the various hues of green and yellow September leaves. Soon more birds came in to feed. It was a typical morning at the feeder — except for one strange visitor.

A small bird with a tawny belly and distinguished black eye stripe caught my attention immediately. It flew in, skipped the sunflower seeds and went to work on the suet. It then flew off and worked the trunk of my massive oak. It was a red-breasted nuthatch.

While the sight of this bird at my feeder was thrilling, it is significant because it and many other sightings of them across the region may indicate an irruptive winter for at least this species. Most of the sightings have come from the western part of the state where there have been three reports of a red crossbill. It is not unusual to get a few sightings of red-breasted nuthatches, but this year there is an extraordinarily high number of them. The sightings began much earlier this year, too.

For this reason, and because of the crossbill sightings, it seems there may be a food shortage up north. This occurs when the cone or birch crop to the far north fails and birds that are dependent on them head south or irrupt into mass migrations. Red-breasted nuthatches are among many birds known as the “winter finch” or irruptive species. These include pine grosbeaks, pine siskins, common redpoll, hoary redpoll, white-winged and red crossbills.

From what I can gather on finch food crops in the far north, it looks like we ought to see some of these species this winter. Pine grosbeaks, a large red tame fruit-eating bird, will have plenty of ash, crabapple and other fruit to feed on, so they are not expected to venture south. However, birch tree seeds are low and therefore common redpolls may turn up. The cone crop is only fair, which supports the presence of the red-breasted nuthatch sightings already.

Red-breasted nuthatches are much smaller than the familiar white-breasted nuthatch that is so common at all of our feeders. A rare sight here in New London County, it is occasionally found year-round in northwestern Connecticut where there are groves of hemlock. They frequent the conifer forests and, consequently, their range extends clear across Canada, north to southern Alaska and east to the Maritime Provinces.

During the summer they feed on arthropods and other insects. Like the white-breasted nuthatch, red-breasteds feed upside down, creeping head-first down tree trunks and underneath branches for insects dwelling in bark crevices. When winter arrives, their diet changes and they start to feed on conifer seeds. Their acrobatic skills are again put to good use when they hang upside down on evergreen boughs in search of cones.

Whether we see more red-breasted nuthatches is speculation, but right now it looks good for these sightings to continue. I have had luck attracting “winter finch” with suet, black oil and thistle seed. So, keep your eyes on the nuthatches and as the green leaves fade to yellow and umber and crimson the appearance of this little northern visitor may surprise you.

Robert Tougias is a birding author who lives in Colchester. Contact him with questions and about color presentations at rtougias@snet.net.