Pine Siskin

Appearance

Both sexes streaky with pointed bills and short, notched tails. Bill is more slender than that of most finches and in flight look for their forked tail, pointed wingtips and flashes of yellow in the wings, which is most noticeable in males.

Size: L 5″
Shape: Small, slim, fairly small-headed bird with a short, well-notched tail and slender, fine-pointed, somewhat conical bill with straight culmen (rarely slightly decurved).

Adult: Head and body finely streaked with brown; underparts dull whitish with streaking across breast and along flanks; yellow edges to primaries and second- aries. Two thin buffy to white wingbars on median and greater coverts (greater coverts have yellow edges, and base of secondaries underneath is also yellow, so that when white to buffy wingbars wear off the greater coverts, the bird can appear to have a wide lower wing bar that is yellowish). There is great variation in the amount of yellow on individuals. The amount and brightness of yellow on the bases of the primaries and retrices is more on adults and young males than on young females and might be used to distinguish up to 35% of males and females when combined with measurements. Occasionally, Pine Siskins (the “green morph”) can show abnormal amounts of yellow in the plumage.

Juv: (June–Aug.) Streaked brown overall: wide buffy wingbars with buffier and slightly more yellowish upperparts.

Natural History

Generally an inhabitant of coniferous or mixed coniferous-deciduous across much of North America except the High Arctic. Seeds of variety of annual plants, notably composites and grasses, and small seeds of various trees, including an assortment of conifers (i.e. spruce, hemlock, cedar, and some pines) and deciduous species such as alder (Alnus spp.) and birch (Betula spp.). By itself or with redpolls and goldfinches, the Pine Siskin will visit nyjer or sunflower seed feeders of all shapes and forms including nyjer seed socks.

Taxonomy

S. p. pinus (Wilson, 1810): widespread across North America.

S. p. macropterus (Bonaparte, 1850): Resident in montane w. Mexico from s. Sonora south to and across the Trans-volcanic Belt

S. p. perplexus (van Rossem, 1938): Resident in highlands of s. Chiapas and w. Guatemala

Object of study

Mimicry in song, and irruptive behaviors.

Flight Call

Calls of this species generally characterized in terms such as “rasping” and “throaty” or “harsher than similar calls of redpolls or goldfinches. A grating call with rising inflection is one of the most familiar sounds produced by Pine Siskins. –this call is described as a zree-e-e-e-e-eet, zwee-e-eeet, or shr-reet. Most common flight call is a quick tee-u, which cannot be confused with goldfinches or redpolls.

Irruptions

Irrupts in numbers southward into the southern States and appears to be irrupting at least in small numbers across parts of east this year.