39. Siskin

Another wet day, another day not spent walking around my patch. A good day however relating to matters of employment! But, I saw another relatively unusual visitor to the garden bird feeders this afternoon. One, which is regular in some winters, and completely absent in others (like this one, or so I thought).

What: Siskin Spinus (Carduelis) spinus (Linnaeus, 1758) – Some places say Carduelis spinus others Spinus spinus (I’m going with the NBN Atlas name https://species.nbnatlas.org/species/NHMSYS0021004277)

When: 3rd March 2020

Where: My garden, Poynton, Cheshire, UK

Who saw it? Me

How was it recorded? Using the eBird app.

Is it bigger than a blackbird? No, pretty standard finch size.

What is it? A green/yellow coloured member of the finch family. The males are yellowy-green with a black crown and yellow and black wings. The females are duller with a washed-out looking yellow-green plumage and lacking the black crown. They are resident in the UK all year round but their numbers are augmented in the winter by European migrants. My garden only gets Siskins in the late-winter period it seems so maybe they are all overwintering birds? They definitely have an association with conifers whose seeds they feed on. A few winters ago my garden had a resident flock of Siskins who arrived in January and disappeared in April, followed again in the subsequent winter. But barely anything since, just the odd singleton like today. Always a great addition to the garden birds when they do make an appearance.

A fact I have learned about this species: The English name comes from Middle Low German, and the Modern Low German word for the bird is Siesken. An earlier English name for Siskin was the Barleybird. (Ref: Lockwood, W. B. (1984) The Oxford Book of British Bird Names Oxford University Press, Oxford).

Is it charismatic in my opinion? Yes definitely. They are mostly gregarious (admittedly today’s bird was not) and they are constantly chattering away to each other brightening up any winter’s day.