Pine Siskins Written by Colin Bartlett

Photo: Pine Siskin (by Yipp)

It has been a year or so since many of us have seen any Pine Siskins visiting the backyard feeders. In the last month we have received reports of these little finches returning to the area. The reports have been from Parksville, Nanoose Bay, Westwood Lake and Lost Lake area in Nanaimo.

One of the reasons as to why we have not seen any Pine Siskins around is that these birds are known as an irruptive species, meaning they move to where the food is. One possible reason as to why irruptions occur is to allow the food supply to replenish in one area while the bird’s feed somewhere else. With the Pine Siskin they move eastward and not south to find other food before returning to the west and their cycle roughly happens ever two to four years.

Siskins do everything in a colony, so an easy way to describe the Pine Siskin is a large flock of birds, any where from 10 to 100, that all arrive at the same time and constantly argue about who is where on the feeder. The Pine Siskins are part of the finch family and are similar in size and shape to the American Goldfinch, at about 5 to 6 inches long. They have a slender bill, different from the House and Purple Finches that have a heavy conical bill. There is little colour to identify them, with only a little yellow on the wings that sometimes looks white. The rest of the body is a gray-brown, streaky body. Other birds that look similar to the Pine Siskin are the female House Finch, which you can check the bill to tell the difference, and the American Goldfinch in its winter plumage which has no streaking on the chest and underside of the bird like the Pine Siskin does.

Attracting Pine Siskins and finches to your backyard can be done with their preferred seeds of, sunflower chip, black oil sunflower and nyjer seed. Although a majority of birds prefer the black oil sunflower seed, you may notice them tossing a lot of the seed away. To be efficient birds weigh each seed and take only the ones that are heavy in weight and will provide the most energy, instead of opening empty seeds and wasting energy. Also Pine Siskins have a fine bill that is not as strong as other finches, so they sort through more seeds to find ones they can open. To help the birds open more seeds and waste less, pre-crack the black oil sunflower seeds before putting it I your feeder. Another option is sunflower chip that has no shell, just seed for the birds to eat. For the Pine Siskins and the American Gold Finch I find that they prefer the fine sunflower chip over the course sunflower chip.

Pine Siskins do everything in a colony from nesting, feeding, traveling and also lots of squabbling. A problem common to birds that move in a colony is disease. As the birds are so close to each other diseases can pass through colony quickly. The best way to help prevent disease around your bird feeders and water supplies is to clean your feeders regularly, at least once a month. A bleach solution of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water is a good all round cleaner for you bird feeders and bird baths. Also clean up any seed that is under the feeders weekly and move the feeder’s location periodically so the disease is not concentrated in one location.

The return of the Pine Siskin will add some winter colour and a lot of activity to the already busy backyard feeders.

Happy birding!!