Pine Siskins

Pine Siskins may show up here in any month although sometimes a year or more may pass between visits. This year, they have irrupted south of their breeding range throughout eastern North America and a half dozen or so showed up at the niger silo this morning, in the company or the more regular American Goldfinches and a Common Redpoll.

A flourish of winter finches

Our sighting of our first Pine Grosbeaks of the season yesterday presaged an influx of other "new" birds at our backyard feeder. Before noon, the feeder had been visited by a pair of Pine Grosbeaks, 15 Evening Grosbeaks, several Common Goldfinches and singles of Pine Siskin and Common Redpoll.

Pine Siskins and new warblers

We experienced an influx of White-throated Sparrows overnight. These were accompanied by the first White-crowned Sparrow of the season. A lone, lingering Evening Grosbeak was joined by three male Purple Fiches and four Pine Siskins.

In the nearby woods, we saw our first Hermit Thrush, Blackburnian, Yellow-rumped and Black-throated Green Warblers of the season.
Here is a close-up of a male Common Grackle tacken outside our kitchen window.

Winter finch arrivals

Each winter brings a new mix of birds to the feeders outside our windows. A flock of 100+ Common Redpolls, accompanied by Pine Siskins and Common Goldfinches, ate nearly 50 kg of niger seed during the winter of 2005-2006. Last year, we didn't see a single Common Redpoll or Evening Grosbeak. This year is another story altogether.

Evening Grosbeaks first appeared in September and have stayed. Presently, we have two or three flocks totaling about 50 birds.
Common Redpolls now festoon the niger silo and the snow beneath. A few of the paler Redpolls may indeed be Hoary Redpolls but there seem to be intermediately coloured birds as well. Some day soon I will step up to meet Jean Iron's Redpoll Challenge, which involves learning to recognize the four redpoll subspecies presently wintering in Ontario.

This year-to-year variation makes backyard birding all the more interesting. To some, these movements may seem erratic but they're not. The so-called "irruptions" of northern bird species are caused by failures of staple food crops in the boreal forest and beyond. Ron Pittaway has acquired some expertise in predicting the movements of "northern birds". His 2007-2008 Winter Finch Forecast is spot-on.