Pine Siskin
Adult Male
While these little finches are reported as widespread right across North America, it took me six years to find one. For some reason, they aren’t seen in my part of the Niagara Peninsula, and it took me eight trips to Algonquin Park before I finally encountered a flock of about 140 Siskins last weekend. Their annual travels are notoriously unpredictable. Like Redpolls, Siskins move across the continent based on the presence of their favourite food supplies. They might be seen in an area one year, and not the next. Irruptions are common.
Siskins are tiny, only about four inches long and they weigh less than half an ounce. These amazingly camouflaged birds so closely resemble a pine cone or a cluster of pine needles that they can disappear instantly inside a tree if a predator is detected.
Their preferred summer habitats are the conifer forests of Northern Canada.
As members of the Finch family, these little birds don’t crush seeds. Even though their bills are slender and less stout-looking than most finches, Siskins still use them to cut open the seed’s hull, wrap the inner fruit with their tongue, and swallow it. As their name suggests, Pine Siskins have a fondness for the seeds of pines and other conifers like cedars, larch, hemlock, and spruce.
The North American Breeding Bird Survey found that Pine Siskin populations have declined by 5% per year between 1966 and 2014, resulting in a cumulative decline of 90%.
Algonquin Park
Ontario, Canada
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