Pine Siskin

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Spinus Pinus

Pine Siskin

Adults are brown on the upperparts and pale on the underparts, with heavy streaking throughout.

They have short forked tails, yellow patches on their wings and tails which may also consist of white streaks on the wings.

Juveniles have pink beaks and buffy- yellow and light brown plumage until they have matured into their adult appearance by fall of their first year.

BILL: sharp, triangular.

SIZE: length ranges from 4.3 –5.5 inches, with a wingspan of 7.1 – 8.7 inches.

WEIGHT: weighs about 12 – 18 grams.

COLOR: brown, yellow, white, buff-yellow and pink.

Seeds, plant parts and some insects.

Ornamental conifers or deciduous trees may support nesting birds in partially developed parks, cemeteries, and suburban woodlands.

Southern Alaska, Mackenzie, Quebec, and Newfoundland south to California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Great Lakes region, and northern New England.

WINTER - Southward throughout the United States.

Voice is a distinctive rising, “bzzzzzt.”

Song is like a hoarse goldfinch.

NEST: The female builds a shallow saucer made of bark, twigs, and moss-lined with plant down and feathers and placed in a conifer.

EGGS: 3 - 4 pale greenish-blue eggs with brown or reddish-brown spotting.

INCUBATION: 13 days, female only.

NESTLING PHASE: 13 - 17 days.

They flit about in the topmost canopy of seed-bearing trees.

They'll often cling upside down to branch tips to empty hanging cones of their seeds.

They are aggressive towards other species during the breeding season and occasionally during throughout winter months.

The oldest recorded Pine Siskin was at least 8 years, 8 months old.

REFERENCES: https://en.wikipedia.org

Winter Backyard Birds (U.S. and Canada) - Pine Siskin