Siskin
Spinus spinus
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A streaky yellow-green finch that hangs upside down from the tips of branches, and turns up at garden feeders in force once winter bites.
The siskin is a small, streaky yellow-green finch of conifer woodland, acrobatic enough to feed hanging upside down from the very tips of branches. Adult males have a bright yellow-green body with a neat black cap and bib; females and young birds are duller and more streaked. Siskins breed in conifer plantations across Dumfries and Galloway and are present year-round, but the population swells noticeably each winter as birds arrive from further north and east to escape harsher weather. That's when they become far easier to see, forming lively flocks that raid alder and birch seed heads and, increasingly, garden peanut feeders. Their calls — thin, wheezy and constant — often give a feeding flock away before it's spotted. By spring most have dispersed back to breeding woodland, leaving gardens quieter until the following winter.
Behaviour
Siskins feed acrobatically, often hanging upside down from cones and catkins to extract seeds with a fine, pointed bill. Outside the breeding season they gather in mixed flocks, sometimes alongside lesser redpolls, moving nomadically between good feeding areas as supplies run low. Garden feeders stocked with niger or sunflower hearts can pull in dozens through the coldest months.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Finches (Fringillidae)
- Size
- 12 cm · smaller than a sparrow
- UK status
- Green-listed
Photo by cazalegg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons