**If anyone can identify these birds for me I would greatly appreiciate it as they have got me stumped!**
Gone to the Birds Wordless Wednesday
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Cynthia~~ I’m not the one to ask being avian-illiterate but they are awfully cute.
Hi Grace, I’m getting better at identifying the backyard birds since we are studying them in our homeschool but these little guys (or gals?) have me baffled. They are cute though, I agree and they love the thistle seed! -Cynthia
I want to say Pine Siskins, but I could be wrong.
Hi Kylee, I was thinking maybe they were Savannah sparrows but I really have no idea. Thanks for the lead- I’ll have to get a closer look at what the pine siskins look like. -Cynthia
I just looked up the Pine Siskin in my Sibley guide and it looks like a good guess! I haven’t played the video yet but if there’s sound, or you can hear them calling, the siskin is supposed so sing “a rapid jumble of husky notes, including many call notes. Call a rough rising buzz “ahreeeeee.” Flight call a high sharp “kdeew” and a dull “bid bid.” Birding by ear is another whole world, we are so visually oriented but the sounds they make can be good clues too if we can learn them (I”m just starting)!
Thanks Karen for all that information! We have been attempting to id our visitors by ear and have gotten good at some of them but this one has had me stumped all week mostly because of the guide I have been referring to. It does not have the greatest pics of this bird I am afraid! And I thought maybe my visitors were too large to be Pine Siskins but perhaps I am way off! Thanks again.
-Cynthia
Whoops, that was supposed to read “zhreeeeee”!
Pine Siskin, no doubt about it (that was a statement proclaimed by my third oldest), we have many flocks of them every year. Your video-ed fellows are missing the yellow eyebrow and pink legs and feet of the Savannah Sparrow. Notice where the yellow comes in on your little siskins when they are at rest, their primary flight feathers and tail feathers with only hints of yellow elsewhere. Their voice matches my Stokes recording of the Pine Siskin almost to a tea. Stokes birding by ear can be loaded to an iPod and is a terrific tool as Karen mentioned. I am thankful that we made birding part of our studies, it really hones observation skills and patience. Another bird study idea is to attach a well marked measuring device to the feeder, one horizontally and one vertically, so that you can have an idea of the size of your birds.
Thank you so much Lanny! That info is really helpful. I especially like the suggestion of being able to measure them as I can see how that would really help with identifying the birds. I thought perhaps these birds were smaller than the Pine Siskins and the measuring device would have greatly helped there. I really did not believe they were Savannah Sparrows because of them lacking the yellow eyebrow but could not come up with anything else. I think I need to find a better guide! I mostly browse online guides to help us with our identifying but maybe that is not enough. I completely agree when you stated birding helps encourage observation skills and patience. All three of my children have learned so much just from taking note of the various birds that visit our backyard. Thanks again for your tips! -Cynthia
I was going to say Pine Siskin too, they like to eat at my thistle feeder.
I haven’t seen any here for awhile.
Hi Catherine, I was getting myself more stumped the more and more I attempted to figure these little guys out! I knew if I posted our video clip on my blog my readers would be able to point us in the right direction.
Interesting that you have not seen any in awhile. As the video shows they are rather prolific in our garden at the moment. However, I did not notice them last year. This year they are hogging the thistle! -Cynthia
Such a sweet video clip, Cynthia! I’m certain they’re Pine Siskens (as others have said). We had a whole herd of them (well, flock…) over the winter. I didn’t realize that they weren’t gold finches at first…until I closely observed their wings and tail…just a thin yellow stripe through the wings. They’re really cute!
Hi Jan, this is the first time I have noticed these birds visiting our feeders. They are really cute and hungry too!
I have to keep filling that thistle feeder and normally it lasts longer than our other feeders. As you can see in the video every single perch is occupied at that feeder! A lot of fun for us to watch. -Cynthia
Thanks to everyone on helping identify these hungry little birds. After reading everyone’s comments I did an image search and found some beautiful pictures at this site of the Pine Siskins. The last image most certainly looks like the birds found in my video. Also, this site has an audio clip that sounds just like the birds in my video. Also at that site, if you scroll down to the last paragraph, there is an interesting fact that might explain Catherine’s observation about them being once at her feeder but not anymore.
We keep a notebook of all the birds, wildflowers, insects, etc. that we identify and I do not add anything to the notebook until we have identified it without a doubt. Thanks to everyone’s comments we can now add the Pine Siskin to our bird files. Thanks again!
-Cynthia
they are really cute…glad you found out what they are.
Hi Deb, they are cute but they are little bullies to each other! I have been watching them all afternoon fighting over that feeder! Amazing how amusing the birds can be.
-Cynthia
Very cool! The only birds we have right now are Robins and Hawks, Kim
Hi Kim, The Robins seem to have slowed down over here. They were all over the garden about a month ago stealing all the worms from our compost pile. We sometimes hear Hawks but have yet to actually see them. -Cynthia
I haven’t been by for awhile and boy did I miss some great pictures! I love the flowering tree post. The lilac and the dogwood is perfect! I also am amazed by the wonderful rainbow capture and wonder what the wordless Wed. bloom is. You should come join us for Bloomin’ Tuesday! Jean