But on Sunday I was surprised that we had a flock of pine siskins. It seems to me that in the past they were something we only saw in the dead of winter.
Siskins are definitely around.
We had a pair mixed in with a flock of goldfinches, chowing down at the thistle feeder. The siskins seemed less skittery than the goldfinches, to whom they are closely related, and continued to eat away after the goldfinches had flown off at our approach. Pine siskins are about the same size as goldfinches, wear the same small-finch beak, and have some splashes of yellow on the wings. They have brown stripes similar to the female house finch, which is a bigger bird. They come down this way for the winter, especially when there is a lack of seeds in the conifer forests of Canada.