We got our first measurable snow of the season yesterday and suddenly there were birds everywhere. I came home from church and counted 50 Pine Siskins on the ground below one of my feeding stations and another 20 or so chowing Nyger seed from the various hanging feeders. They were joined by a smaller flock of goldfinches, several House Sparrows, some chickadees, a cardinal and a Downy Woodpecker. And that’s just what I counted from one glance out the window.
I’ve noticed that the Pine Siskins and goldfinches seem to tolerate one another at the feeders, but there’s a lot of scrambling for positions and occasionally the birds bully one another off a perch (you can see a goldfinch challenging a Pine Siskin at the bottom of the feeder in the photo below):
The Pine Siskins are fun to watch, but they are also quite chatty. I hear dozens of them singing from the treetops when I go outside to fill the feeders. Other than an occasional call from a chickadee or nuthatch, I’m not used to hearing birds sing in the winter.
They must be calling out to all their friends because what started as a tiny flock of 4 birds a few weeks ago has quickly ballooned to more than 70.