MA - bright green morph Pine Siskin - 01/05

Pine Siskin - 'green morph', Gill, Franklin Co., MA. Three shots taken on January 5th, 2011. Images taken using Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40 through living room window. The shots below were taken on January 4th.









Pine Siskin - 'green morph', Gill, Franklin Co., MA. January 4th, 2011. Images taken using Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40 through living room window.

The variation in Pine Siskins visiting the yard over the last month has just been incredible. Aside from ranging from dark, brownish and heavily streaked birds to paler, grayer more lightly streaked types with many intermediates, quite a few green morphs continue to show up at the feeders. Over the last few days I took some better images of this bird which shows at least some resemblance to a female Eurasian Siskin (Carduelis spinus). It's a really bright, interesting bird, but even so I'm sure the undertail coverts (yellow in green morph Pine and white in female Eurasian) point to this bird being a Pine Siskin over Eurasian. In addition, I believe female Eurasian Siskin would show a lot more yellow on the rump. For comparison, I found a nice of Eurasian Siskin images by Nicole Bouglouan here;

Despite the huge variation in the birds visiting our feeder, my assumption (perhaps incorrect) is that all of the these birds are of the nominate form (C. p. pinus) breeding primarily from Saskatchewan east to Newfoundland.



JPS

MA - Pine Siskin (green morph) - 12/10

Pine Siskin - green morph (images 1 - 7), last shot included to show yellow undertail coverts. Gill, Franklin Co., MA. December 10th, 2010. Images taken using Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ 7 through Swarovski HD scope.

Pine Siskin - two more typically plumaged birds. Gill, Franklin Co, MA. December 10th, 2010.

A few more shots of one of the green morphs visiting the feeders. The Pine Siskin flock size was a bit reduced today with perhaps no more than 15 birds.

JPS

MA - Pine Siskins including green morphs - 12/09

Pine Siskins - green-morphs (upper two birds, front and rear) with typically plumaged birds, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. December 9th, 2010. Green-morphs show unusual amounts of yellow in various parts of the plumage but especially on the undertail coverts which should be white in typical birds. The green-morph at the front also had a nice greenish suffusion to the upperparts and yellowish-toned supercilia and surround to the ear coverts. Nice birds, sometimes causing confusion with female Eurasian Siskin.

Pine Siskin - green-morph, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. December 9th, 2010.

Pine Siskin - green-morph, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. December 9th, 2010.

Pine Siskins - Gill, Franklin Co., MA. December 9th, 2010. Slightly pale, but fairly typical bird in most respects.

What a treat to get a sudden incursion of Pine Siskins at the feeders this morning. After days with just one lone siskin working the thistle-socks with the goldfinches, a sudden mass arrival of about 30 birds included at least two 'green-morphs' - a scarce color variant with abnormal amounts of yellow in the plumage.

JPS

MA - Redpoll and belated green-morph Pine Siskin - 02/25

Spent the whole day with Matan but still recorded some nice species, most notably this fine male Common Redpoll which visited the deck in mid-morning and mid-afternoon. I've been hearing Common Redpolls in Amherst for about the last 10 days, so it was rather sweet to finally get one in the yard with the Pine Siskins.


Also included here, a late post of our 4th 'green-morph' Pine Siskin of the winter on Feb 17th. Here showing a nice yellow wash across the breast, along the flanks and the undertail coverts.


In the afternoon, a quick drive up to Turner's Falls with Matan found the Slaty-backed Gull resting distantly on the ice buried within a rather sizeable gull flock. Many birders seemed to be admiring the Slaty from the Gill side of the river. Also, present, the unidentified 'Thayer's-like' Gull and a two adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls.


JPS

A third 'green morph' Pine Siskin - 02/10

Pine Siskin - green morph (left most bird in both shots), North Whitney Street, Amherst, MA.

Pine Siskin - green morph, North Whitney Street, Amherst, MA. Poor quality digibin images taken through the glass of the deck door.

The largest concentration (60 plus) of Pine Siskins at our feeders brought another green morph, this one being greener backed than the previous two, though with far less yellow on the rump than yesterday's bird. Huge numbers Pine Siskins remain in the North Whitney Street/Redgate Lane area, and I also had another party of White-winged Crossbills on South-east Street, Amherst today.

Reports of green morph Pine Siskins seem to have been common place on several of the New England listserves over the last week or so. Rachel Farrell got some nice images of a bright bird that she had in her yard in East Providence, RI which can be seen here.

'Green' Pine Siskin - 02/09

Remarkably, in addition to the bird at our feeders on February 6th, we had an even brighter male Pine Siskin just after lunch today. This bird really did have an overall 'greenish' cast to the upperparts and a strong yellow wash on the underparts, ventral region, and surrounding the auriculars. Unlike the bird from Feb 6th, this bird had a bright yellow rump much like Eurasian Siskin along with two yellow wing bars (median coverts dull yellow compared to bright yellow greater covert bar) again vaguely resembling female Eurasian Siskin.

I'm grateful to Sheryl Johnson, David Spector, Mark Szantyr and Scott Surner for offering comments on the green morph of Pine Siskin.

'Green morph' Pine Siskin - the yellowish rump can been here.

Also over North Whitney Street today, 5 White-winged Crossbills.