Walking out the door
one early morning in late winter and I hear the Ponderosa pines abuzz with
numerous twitters of tiny birds. Lots of tiny birds. I’d heard of Pine Siskins
but hadn’t had the pleasure of focusing in on their company. And here they
were, a minor flock of them. Soon these
small but nomadic passeriformes of the finch family had taken over my bird
feeders. They are enjoyable, gregarious birds that fly with a flash of yellow
under sided wings.
When I had thought of Pine Siskins at all the visualization
was of a larger bird (wrong), and one somewhat more solitary than not (wrong
again). These flashy songbirds are very small, more along the line of a nuthatch
or chickadee. And their daily flight pattern is in somewhat tight clusters of a
dozen or more birds appearing the feeders at once. Although I have noticed
solitary siskins perched on or around the feeders, who are much less shy than
their like-sized cousins mentioned above when the photographer is present.
Watching them closely I questioned whether they had consumed too many seeds and
needed a digestive break.
Pine Siskins have sharp, pointed bills more uniquely shaped
and slender than of most finches. Their
short, forked tails and pointed wingtips are readily noticeable in flight. Pine
Siskins exercise an erratic migratory pattern in response to the seed crops
they forage on. These acrobatic creatures are better suited clinging to small
branches than hopping about on the ground thus their preferred habitat is the
edge lands or open canopies of mixed conifer and deciduous forest even though
they will forage gardens, cultivated fields and weedy patches in search of
various seeds. It makes sense that Pine Siskins have fondness for the seeds of
pines as their name suggests. Although their diverse diet may well account for
a highly adaptive range map these small birds cover. That diet includes seeds from other conifers, western
larch, cedars, and spruce. Deciduous
seeds are also on the menu, birch, alder
and maples. Lending itself to an omnivorous appetite they forage for insects,
spiders, and grubs throughout the forest canopy occasionally snatching flying
insects from the air. And, of course, as mentioned they are frequent fliers at
many of our feeders.
After studying birds for a bit I’ll venture to say that my
discovery of each bird having some unique-to-itself feature, behavior or
characteristic is a well-known fact amongst true birders. Pine Siskin are known for their unpredictable mass
movements referred to as ‘irruptions’. This is when migratory patterns shift
with some flocks of siskins entering non-usual areas while others fly west-east
and still others north-south. Scientists suggest that though these movements
are erratic they are not necessarily random. In the wake of an irruptive
migratory season some of these birds, especially those with dependable food
sources, may breed far outside their normal range. For more info on this check out Project
Feeder Watch online.
Not your normal songbird: With some of the Pine Siskins year-round habitat in
northern areas and, or high elevation
these diminutive birds put on half again as much winter fat as their American
Goldfinch relatives and survive cold winter nights by ramping up their
metabolic rates—typically 40% higher than a “normal” songbird of their size –
that equates to a lot of shivering. To protect their eggs from cold damage the nest
is not only highly insulated but the female remains on the brood continuously
and is fed by the male throughout the process. And speaking of cold, the temporary seed storage a Pine Siskin has
in their crop can total up to as 10% of their body mass equaling enough food energy to get them through several nighttime
hours of subzero temperatures (and possibly accounting for their sluggishness
at the feeder).
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology tells us that, “the oldest
recorded Pine Siskin was at least 8 years, 8 months old when it was found in
Michigan in 1966. It had been banded in Pennsylvania in 1958.”
Pine Siskins are the type of migrator that can be abundant
one winter and gone the next. As I write this the feeder is quickly falling to
the low point and soon the twittering calls of ‘fillitup, fillitup” will be
heard throughout the yard. So grab your field glasses, camera and bird book and
set-out for a backyard adventure here in the Columbia Highlands. Pine Siskins,
if you have them, will be one of the tiny birds clinging to the ends of conifer
branches, hanging off pine cones and flashing across the yard or meadow in a
cluster with resounding twitters all about. Happy birding…
XX
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