As winter drones on, I tend to get a little lazy with my birdwatching unless I’m doing a count for Project Feederwatch. It’s easy to glance out the window at the thistle feeders and assume I’m seeing the same flock of goldfinches. But if I don’t look carefully, I can easily miss the occasional visits from other members of the finch family.
Pine Siskins look similar to goldfinches from behind. In the photo below there is a goldfinch on the top perch and a Pine Siskin on the bottom perch. If you look closely, you can see that Pine Siskins have yellow bars on their wings and tails and less black than a goldfinch.
From the front it’s much easier to tell the difference. In the photo above, the goldfinch is on the left perch and the Pine Siskin is on the right.
But just when you think you have things figured out, along comes the female Purple Finch. Fortunately, she has a white eyebrow that sets her apart from the Pine Siskin:
But what about the female House Finch? There’s no eyebrow to help with identification, but her beak is much thicker than that of a Pine Siskin:
Common Redpolls also sneak by me from time to time. The females blend in quite easily with any of the birds mentioned above. However, in good light you’ll eventually notice her little red forehead:
Male and female Common Redpolls look nearly identical from behind and both share the red forehead, but the males are easily distinguished by their pink-streaked breasts:
This week I’ve had Goldfinches, Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls sharing the thistle feeders together which has never happened before in my backyard. It’s a good thing I was paying attention, or I would’ve assumed they were all Goldfinches.