Last Updated on January 25, 2024 by Catherine Tobsing

Quora is a cool place for content. Unfortunately, there are a lot of amateurs answering questions with some, well, wrong answers. This particular question ran off the rails quite early. 

With 10,400 (plus or minus) species of birds, the question is rather vague. Parrots a.k.a. hookbills, parakeets, and conures all generally reside in temperate climates. One exception we know quite well here in Chicago is the Monk parakeet or Quaker parrot.

Urban legend has it that a small flock escaped from a container at O’Hare airport decades ago. They now reside mainly on the south side of Chicago along the lake near the Museum of Science and Industry.  

Keeping warm during the winter, but in that they are the only parrot that builds a stick nest, they build very large communal nests and keep each other warm living by the dozens.

I am sure they get food from open garbage containers near restaurants around the city plus the citizens of Chicago have taken them under their wings and many put out food for them.

The Kea is an Alpine parrot found in forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand and enjoys cold weather.

Red & White-winged Crossbill – Northern Goshawk – Snow Bunting – Lapland Longspur – Ross’s & Snow Geese – Bohemian Waxwing – Evening Grosbeak – Snowy Owl – Rosy-Finch – Hoary & Common Redpoll are all considered “winter” birds.

The Arctic Tern migrates from one polar region to another and back for a total of about 60,000 miles and it goes from cold to cold.

Because they can live between 15 and 30 years they could fly upwards of almost 2 million miles over their lifetime which is about four round trips to the moon and back.

The only species of bird known to hibernate throughout the winter is the common poorwill.

Related to the night jar they are found in the Western states of our country like California and New Mexico.

It’s a nocturnal hunter (parrots are diurnal – active during daylight hours while sleeping at night) but when it cannot find food to survive during the cold winter it hides in the rocky crevices of the outcrop where it resides.

In the UK young swifts fall into what’s called a state of “torpor” where they reduce both body temperature and metabolism which saves energy. This is done for shorter periods until conditions improve enough to allow them to seek food.

Birds such as hummingbirds, night jars, and swifts all employ torpor as a survival strategy at one time or another but it’s only a short-term solution sometimes just to get through a single cold night.

Per NPR (radio): “In many Holarctic bird species, migration phenology is adjusting towards an earlier arrival to breeding grounds to accommodate the earlier onset of spring [brought about by global warming].

In addition, an increasing number of studies have also reported that Holarctic migrants are shortening their migration and overwinter at higher latitudes closer to their breeding grounds.”

Editors note: Holarctic is the name for the biogeographic realm that encompasses the majority of habitats found throughout the northern continents of the world.

Some North American robins are known to get complacent during late fall and early winter, thus trapped by a sudden winter storm.

Written by Mitch Rezman
Approved by Catherine Tobsing

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