Pine siskins brandish insatiable appetites for seeds

I had to chuckle at the post on the Maine birding e-mail list. It was from Don Tucker, and it read:

“Here in North Berwick, it started with one or two at the feeder beginning about two weeks ago, gradually increasing to five or six. Today we hit the jackpot. There are at least 40 now at the thistle feeders. Together with an equal number of goldfinches, they may bankrupt me at the rate they are going through the thistle seed.”

I didn’t need to see the subject line; I knew he had to be talking about pine siskins.

A few weeks back I also had a flock of siskins visit my feeders. At first, glancing quickly out of the window, I had thought they were simply additional members of an apparently resident flock of American goldfinches. A second look showed me the streaked chests, yellow wing bars and yellow edging on the wing feathers. They also have smaller, more sharply pointed bills than do goldfinches.

I noticed the siskins almost always moved as a flock; seldom did they separate to pursue their own interests. Either they all gathered at the feeders or they all sought the shelter of the trees – something they did every few minutes in response to some signal or false alarm. Then they’d all come whirling back, resembling a cyclone of leaves blown by the wind. It was quite impressive to see them alight on the feeder all at once. The entire feeder would be covered, feeding ports and all.

Here is where I can empathize with Don’s remarks about going bankrupt. Both siskins and goldfinches go about eating with a certain dedicated stubbornness. Once they park their little bodies at a feeding port, they don’t budge unless startled; I began to wonder if the other birds were sounding false alarms just to get their share of the bounty – researchers have in fact documented this type of deceptive behavior in birds and other animals. They perch there and ingest seed as quickly as they can, for as long as they can.

And woe to the bird that tries to oust them from their plate! The dainty chickadees didn’t stand a chance, nor did the more pugnacious red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches. Unfortunately, the siskins didn’t stick around long enough to give the downy and hairy woodpeckers, who love to slurp up the shelled sunflower seeds, a run for their money.

Such a wealth of information can be gathered just by watching the activity at a bird feeder. And, speaking of which, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has begun its Project FeederWatch season. This winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders helps scientists track their winter movements and long-term population trends. To find out more about the project and how you can participate, visit the Lab’s Web page at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/Overview/overindex.html.

Happy bird-watching.

Chris Corio, a volunteer at Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden, can be reached at fieldspond@juno.com