Pine Siskin
Spinus pinus · Finches, Euphonias, and Allies
Banding codePISI
Keys to identifying it
1Size & shape
About 4.75 in long.
2Color pattern
- Small, streaky brown finch
- Thin, sharply pointed bill
- Yellow edges in wings and tail
3Habitat & season
Conifers, feeders (numbers vary year to year)
In northern Utah: year-round.
Seen most often in January and July.
Share of the region’s research-grade iNaturalist bird observations each month, scaled to this bird’s peak. Highlighted bars are its peak months.
4Voice
A rising, buzzy wheeze among twittering notes.
“zreeeeee (like a zipper)”
iNat 72265088 by Andy Kleinhesselink · Claremont, CA 91711, USA · CC0
Know it
- Its call is a rising, buzzy 'zreeee' like a zipper being pulled.
- Numbers swing wildly from year to year as it wanders after conifer seed crops.
- Can stash seeds weighing up to a tenth of its body weight in its crop, a pouch in its throat, to fuel cold nights.
- Shows flashes of yellow in its wings and tail when it flies.
Often confused with
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- Cassin's Finch
- Green-tailed Towhee
From iNaturalist identification data for northern Utah.
From Wikipedia
The pine siskin is a North American bird in the finch family. It is a migratory bird with an extremely sporadic winter range.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0