By mid-March we began having some spring-like weather.  There hadn’t been many unusual species of birds in the yard but with the better weather I began to spend more time in the yard.  We were over-run with Dark-eyed juncos and Pine siskins but relatively few other species.

On one of my first days I spent in the yard we had Pine siskins flying everywhere.  I surmised, it turns out correctly, that they would probably attract some other species.  I’ll deal with those in a subsequent blog post.  But as I sat in the yard the siskins were flying back and forth all around me.  On two occasions the siskins almost lit on my head.  After a while I had one light on the end of my lens as I had my face near my camera!  About three minutes later one lit on the camera itself.  My face was up against the back of the camera and my first thought was that the bird might peck me in the eye (it was probably less than two inches away), but then I realized that I was wearing the new eyeglasses that I had obtained less than two months previously.  After a few seconds the Pine siskin flew, but a while later another one landed on the end of my lens.  What I wouldn’t have given for a photograph!

The Pine siskins are extremely gregarious but also extremely aggressive among not only other species, but also their own.  They seem to enjoy being together, but if they get too close to one another it almost always evokes an aggressive response.  Pictured below is the bird’s warning posture… it leans forward, opens its beak and occasionally spreads its wings.  In this case this bird was bathing and it’s warning another bird on a rock above it not to come so close!

Here are a couple of more photos of siskins.  I’m guessing that this one is probably a male due to the bright colors on the bird.

This bird is probably either a female or a first-year juvenile.  Note the formidable sharp beak the bird has.

In my next post I’ll show some of the birds attracted by the spring weather and the presence of all the other birds in the yard.