Eurasian Siskin

The Eurasian Siskin is a small, lively finch with a slender, pointed bill well suited to extracting seeds from conifer cones and alder catkins. The male is streaked yellow-green with a black crown and small black chin patch, bright yellow wing bars, and yellow-green edges to the tail. The female is duller and more heavily streaked, lacking the black cap.

Highly acrobatic, Siskins often feed hanging upside down from cone clusters or catkins, and they form active, twittering flocks that move nomadically in search of good seed crops, sometimes irrupting into new areas in years of food shortage further north.

Key field marks

• Male: black crown and small black bib, yellow-green streaked body, bright yellow wing bars
• Female: duller, more heavily streaked, no black cap
• Slender, pointed bill
• Bright yellow patches at the base of the tail

Similar species

• European Greenfinch is larger, stockier, and less streaked, with a heavier bill.
• European Goldfinch has a red face and lacks the Siskin's black cap and streaking.

Habitat

Favors coniferous and mixed woodland, especially spruce and pine, as well as alder and birch stands along rivers in winter.

Range

Widespread across Europe and temperate Asia.

Migration

Partially migratory and notably nomadic/irruptive, with numbers in a given area varying greatly year to year depending on seed crop availability; many move south or make local movements in winter.

Behavior

Highly acrobatic, often hanging upside down from cones or catkins to extract seeds; forms active, twittering flocks outside the breeding season and is an increasingly common garden feeder visitor in some winters.

Voice

A lively, twittering, wheezy song mixed with trilling notes; distinctive flight call is a thin, rising "tsy-zi."

Feeding

Specializes on conifer seeds and alder or birch catkins, extracted with its fine pointed bill, supplemented by insects in the breeding season; visits feeders for nyjer and sunflower hearts.

Nesting

Builds a small, neat cup nest of twigs, moss, and lichen, typically high in a conifer; lays 3-5 pale blue-green eggs with fine reddish speckling.