Karen Wils photo A downy woodpecker enjoys a suet treat.

ESCANABA — Upper Michigan winters are for the birds!

Layers of ice, heaps of snow and the ever-present threat of below-zero temperatures can make even the hardiest of us winter weary.

But after all the snow is shoveled, the coffee done and the car started, there is a spark of joy by the window.

Sometimes, my best early morning friends are cold cardinals, chilly chickadees and wind ruffed woodpeckers.

Inside the kitchen window, the tea kettle is whistling. Outside the kitchen window, a nuthacker mumbles and a flock of goldfinches serenade.

As I am pulling on leggings, sweaters and vests, a blue jay is fluffing his bright feathers, trapping in his body heat.

As I’m spooning up my cinnamon oatmeal, a downy woodpecker is stabbing at a frozen chunk of suet.

For a moment or two, I study the delicate feet of the slate juncos standing in the snow. I notice the toes of the pine siskins as they flit from the icicles to the bird feeder.

Then I don my wool socks and Sorel boots.

It is nothing short of amazing how our feathered friends, especially the tiny ones, can survive the harshness of a U.P. winter.

When you’ve shoveled the last step, scraped the last window, and put on your last pair of long johns, just think of how hard the birds have it. They need the right kind and the right amount of food to fuel their little body “furnaces.” Each species needs the right kind of shelter from the north wind.

For every type of bird that stays in Michigan year round, the wild food chain supplies the nutrition that is needed. Woodpeckers are meant to hunt down larva and dormant insects in the tree bark. Cross bills and grosbeaks are designed to harvest seeds from spruce and pine cones.

We humans like to feed the birds in the wintertime, and this is just a little extra plus to help get them through. For the price of a few sunflower seeds, suet, cracked corn or wild seed mix and can get the local birds to stop by your kitchen window.

They will certainly bring a spark of joy, color and optimism to your wintery backyard. A bird feeder will bring in the treetop dwellers for a seed break and the ground feeders will flock in too.

From sun up to sun down, a regular parade of birds will visit the feeder by the window. Some of the monotony of winter will be broken by redpolls, purple finches and gray jays.

No matter how cold or how snowy it gets, our tough Yooper birds of winter seem to take it in stride and thrive.

So, put out a few seeds or make a peanut butter or suet cup for the birds in your neighborhood. The cheery chickadees and the gabbing grosbeaks will help you whittle away the waning days of winter!

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Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.