Pine Siskin

About the Pine Siskin

The Pine Siskin is a small, heavily streaked finch with flashes of yellow in the wings and tail and a sharp, wheezy voice. Siskins are famous for irruptions: in some winters they pour south out of the northern forests by the thousands, swarming Texas feeders, and in other winters they barely show up at all.

They are scrappy little birds, squabbling constantly at thistle socks and spinning off in tight, twittering flocks. A rising zreeeee call, like a zipper being pulled, announces them before you see them.

These birds were photographed at Commons Ford Ranch Metropolitan Park in Austin during a good siskin winter.