Siskins, others, and a sign of the season to come (maybe)

The cold weather following the cold front last Wednesday night brought with it increased activity at the bird feeders in Catch the Wind. There had been one Pine Siskin hanging around for a couple of weeks and Ranger Kristin reported 6 siskins at the feeders on Sunday (1/27) but it took the cold to bring in a group of 18 of the little finches.

A couple of siskins take water from one of the bowls at the feeding station.

The birds had nearly cleaned out the thistle feeder, it was getting very low on seed, and they began to eat from the ground.

Not able to find enough feeding stations at the thistle feeder the birds took to the ground.

I replenished the thistle and all was well again.

Pine Siskin feeding in harmony, sort of, with goldfinch.

I noticed that the siskin in the above photo was having trouble and seemed to be looking around more often than normal. Birds at a feeder are constantly checking out their surroundings, but this bird seemed more on edge than the others. I found out why when it went to the other side of the feeder.

Same birds as above. The left eye is either shut closed or is missing.

The siskin could only see out of one eye. My first thought was that the eye was missing, but remembered that these birds are susceptible to the same disease as is suffered by the House Finch, Mycoplasmal conjuctivitis. This disease causes severe swelling of the eyes and eventually death in the infected birds. It can cause similar symtoms as occur in Avian Pox, but that disease also causes bumps and swelling of the feet and legs. I don’t see any of that on our siskin.

The eyes of the siskin in the photo do not, in fact, look swollen as would be the case with either disease. Only one eye is affected, and that one appears to be sunken. Perhaps this bird flew into a tree limb, had an encounter with a predator, or somehow otherwise injured itself.

Saturday (2/2), there were more than two dozen of the trim little finches and many more goldfinches. Pine Siskins have been reported on carolinabirds ListServ this past week from Cary, Raleigh, and Durham. Some feeders around the Triangle have had over 100 siskins.

The feeders were packed on Saturday (2/2).

Many other birds were stocking up on Saturday as well.

A White-breasted Nuthatch hangs upside down on the suet cage…
then reaches in for a taste of that hot, peppery fat snack.
Anyone know what this little fellow is? No, it’s not a White-breasted Nuthatch, but it IS a nuthatch.
Brown-headed Nuthatch.

The smallest nuthatch in our area, the Brown-headed Nuthatch is a southeastern specialty. Two other nuthatches can be seen here in the southeast, the year-round resident White-breasted Nuthatch and the sometime winter visitor Red-breasted Nuthatch.

If you knew what the little nuthatch in the photo was, you did very well. All of the three nuthatches in our area can have brownish undertail coverts. They’d all be difficult to distiguish from one another with the rear-end view as in the photo. That probably wasn’t a very fair question at all.

Although, if you were really sharp you may have noticed the size difference between this bird and the larger White-breasted Nuthatch above, that is, relative to the suet cage and or wrought iron in the photo, but that’s pushing it too. Sorry. It’s definitely a Brown-headed Nuthatch.

Two Northern Cardinals wait their turn at the feeders.

Elsewhere, I saw a small flock of Field Sparrows down in the Wetlands and two Canada Geese flew in for a brief look around the area. I didn’t get a very close look at them, but could those two geese have been Lucy and Goosey?

The seasons they are a changing.

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Pine Siskin or House Finch?

Pine Siskin (left) and female House Finch.

The Pine Siskin in comparison to the House Finch is a smaller, more trim bird. They’re closer in size to goldfinches than House Finches. Siskins have a more pointed bill than the House Finch and note the rounded head, not flat-topped like the House Finch.

Siskins have an overall cleaner appearance, more distinct streaks on a whiter background. They have streaked backs as well. And, make note of the clean white wingbars on the siskin. Siskins’ tails are shorter and more notched than House Finches.

You won’t see the yellow on the flight feathers in all siskins (photo), but if there’s a group of finches at your feeder and they all look the same except that some have yellow on their wings, they’re probably all siskins. Their flocking behavior is another characteristic of siskins, they may be here today and gone tomorrow. House Finches may linger in smaller groups once they find a good food source, like your feeder.

House Finches are less likely to try and feed from a thistle feeder, their bills are too broad to fit into the tiny holes of those feeders, so if the birds that you have are eating all of your thistle, they’re probably siskins or goldfinches. Of course, both siskins and goldfinches will eat up all of your sunflower seed too if you don’t have thistle for them.

There should be no trouble distinguishing a male House Finch from any siskin, they have reddish feathers on the head, back, and breast.

Good luck!

8 responses to Siskins, others, and a sign of the season to come (maybe)

  1. susan weaver says:

    I had the same bird last year with both eyes like that. He stayed in the tray of the feeder for days. I decide to try and get him to help him but he flew off. I noticed he couldnt even find the branch to land on. It was sad I never saw him again.
    susan Backyardfeatheredfriends.com

    • Greg Dodge says:

      I don’t know what became of our siskin either. We were swamped with siskins soon after the photos were taken and the bird was probably not able to compete. Many birds don’t make it through the winter for a variety of reasons but it’s a good thing that many do survive. Our siskins are finally dispersing and presumably going back north to make more siskins for us to enjoy watching.

  2. judy Overby says:

    I’ve also been enjoying seeing the Pine Siskins at my feeders. This morning there were too many to count- maybe 75. They are in competition with the regulars including Blue Birds, the 3 species of Nuthatches and Yellow-rumped Warblers. It is indeed exciting! BTW, what kind of suet are you using in the feeders?

    • Greg Dodge says:

      There’s not as many siskin here today as there were last week but things are still hopping.
      The suet that we use is Hot Pepper Delight made by C & S Products. The peppery taste deters the squirrels and the birds eat it up.
      Enjoy!

  3. Linda Ritter says:

    How can a person tell the difference between the siskins and house finches. We had about 30 of these at our feeders last couple days. We thought they were finches because of the tan stripes on chest with the white. Thanks.

  4. Leslie says:

    We have had a huge group of siskins (probably 15 or more) at our feeder since last weekend. I went through ten lbs of black oil sunflower seed in 5 days. I can’t remember having this much activity in a long time. At one point, I counted 18 different species feeding at the feeder or on the ground at once!

      • Greg Dodge says:

        Yes, the siskins seem to be everywhere you look the past few weeks. Enjoy them now, they will probably just as quickly disappear.

        I put identification info at the end of the journal posting. Scroll down and have a look.
        Good luck!

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