Recent Sighting of Pine Siskins
Pine Siskins. October 29, 2015, Clayton Lake. “ Pine Siskins (5) feeding on the ground behind our house”. Seen by Howard Robinson. Report sent in by Cliff Bennett.
To send in your recent sightings go to MVFN Nature Notebook.
It was good to study this bird again and check its differences between the female house finch. The pine siskin, a small and very streaked finch a little bigger than a chickadee, breeds all across Canada, in the boreal forest. Its nest, a cup made of grasses and twigs, is made anywhere from one to seven ft. above the ground and sometimes on the ground beside a small rock. The adults show yellow between their feathers. Single brooded, they raise 4-5 young ones each year. In winter, they come south and spread erratically all over the continent. An active species around your feeders, some years there are many counted on the Christmas Bird Counts and other times, there are none. Watch for them with the goldfinches and redpolls. The female house finch, also streaked but with now yellow, is an inch larger and is found mainly in built-up areas.
