It’s -13 F right now, and with a moderate wind blowing, the wind chill makes it -36 F. That’s too cold for me, but not too cold for the hungry birds and squirrels in the backyard to come into the bird feeders for a meal.
Gray squirrels don’t venture out until the sun is well up on these really cold days. And before they cross snow patches to get to the feeders, they bask on the trees for a while to warm up, orienting the darker fur on their backs directly toward the sun.
Even the chickadees take a few minutes between trips to the feeder to bask a little, fluffing their feathers out to make their tiny bodies into an almost spherical shape.
The bluejay must have been too cold to move — it just sat there looking around, squinting into the sun. I could see the wind ruffling up its feathers — brrrrrrr.
Basking to gain what little radiant heat the sun provides at this time of year can be effective in warming up, but wind currents that penetrate fur and feathers carry that precious heat away. What can a small animal do to cope with this intense winter cold? Activity helps, as muscles generate heat, but that comes at a cost to be repaid by eating more. Shivering helps, and when animals are not active, muscles engage in isometric tremors that generate heat, which is also expensive, but not as much as flying or running across the snow and climbing trees. The only animals that seem unperturbed by this weather are the feisty little red squirrels.
Red Squirrels must generate a lot of heat dashing around, because they spend almost no time basking and a lot of time digging into the snow looking for buried treasures (food) and running up and down trees to stash whatever they find away.
Back Yard Biology 
I still wonder WHY they even live there!
A silly but true answer — less competition. Population densities are lower in areas with less favorable climates. Isn’t that why we moved to Minnesota from California (haha)? 🙂
That is also why Joshua trees live out in the worst of the Mojave Desert, but that doesn’t make it right!
Yikes. We are down in the upper teens and 20’s here in Northern Virginia, but that can’t compete with your frigid temperatures. It is amazing that creatures, both large and small, are able to make it through the winter. I enjoyed learning about the basking habits of the squirrels–it’s something that I never noticed before.
It is amazing indeed that something as small as a chickadee (weighing less than a fast food ketchup package) can survive these temperatures, but they do, and very successfully.