Last week Texas experienced record cold temps throughout the state. At my home it was down to 3 degrees F. I live on the edge of the Balcones Wildlife Preserve in Austin TX. For the past several years I had feeders setup in my backyard and always had several Northern Cardinals come to the feeders, a…

As someone who lives within the San Antonio Area. And was active on iNat during the freeze. I was able to see lots of examples of species affected by the freeze. Both through my own eyes and through the observations of others on iNat. I saw that as you said, species such as the Northern Cardinal whe…

You can add observations of birds that died in the storm in these projects: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/winter-storm-uri-wildlife-deaths https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dead-birds We had the usual cardinals, wrens, chickadees, and red-bellied woodpeckers come for suet balls and meal…

I’m in Georgetown. The local bird feeders were swamped with birds basically the whole time. Even in the middle of the day when there usually aren’t any birds, the feeders were crowded. The cedar waxwings around here were on the berry trees and seemed to be doing OK, though I worried about them some,…

Thanks for this post. I am in Corpus Christi, TX and I am trying to raise awareness on 2 topics related to this DEEP FREEZE 2021. I have found several dead animals that froze in this “Big Freeze”. The two things I am worried about: 1) Hummingbirds 2) Monarch Butterflies. First: Our plants here i…

I’m sure many birds (and other organisms like lizards) did die in the cold snap, but I’m also pretty sure that they’ll bounce back after a few years. In most cases, these species have evolved to deal with the occasional cold-induced mortality event. Even more interesting, they continue to do so! In…

I hope you are right, but what if this is no longer an occasional event? Do you think that these species will be able to evolve fast enough to withstand the upcoming environmental changes?

Welcome to the Forum. I had been wondering what was happening to wild life during that time. Thanks.

Welcome to the Forum. Do you think the milkweed plants are dead, or will they regenerate from the roots? Where I live - Winnipeg, N of Minneapolis - the plants come back every year. I’m assuming the ground did not freeze too deeply.

I don’t know about Cedar, but our Bohemian Waxwings are easily eating berries when it’s -30C, they’re used to frozen food.

Hummingbirds can tolerate cold by going into torpor, where they lower their body temperature to reduce energy needs. Normally this is just for overnight, and I don’t know if they can survive for days in a state of torpor. I am glad you’re raising awareness about people putting out hummingbird feede…

Texas Birds and the Freeze

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Texas Birds and the Freeze

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