El Nino Winter: What It Means for Backyard Birds

Buzz Blossom & Squeak — Be a Neighborhood Naturalist · Sep 17, 2026 · 14m

Somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific right now, the ocean is doing something it hasn't done in almost 150 years, and if you keep a feeder in your backyard, that's about to matter more than you'd think. This fall NOAA has put the odds at over 90% that we're headed into a very strong El Nino by winter, with some scientists reaching back to 1877 for a comparable event. I wanted to break down what El Nino actually is in plain terms, and then get into the part I really care about: what a warm, dry winter like this one tends to do to the birds right outside your window. What El Nino actually…