Pine Siskin bullies (1 Viewer)

[sunnibird]

My sunflower seed bird feeder used to attract a nice variety chickadees, finches, warblers, and juncos and it was great. But recently a small flock of pine siskins (2-6 birds at a time) has discovered the feeder. At first I was happy to see a new bird visit my feeder but now I'm getting annoyed. They don't play nice. They camp out and dominate the feeder and hog all the food and it too much too fast. They won't let any other species of bird anywhere near the feeder when they're around even if there's plenty of room. That in itself wouldn't be so annoying if they'd just eat their fill and go away. But they "guard" it for hours at a time. I've seen a couple of siskins stuff themselves with so much seed they can barely fly. So instead they just hang around the feeder, not eating, but raising a fuss whenever any other type of bird comes near it. So even when they aren't eating they won't let others eat. I used to have a lot of chickadees and finches hanging around the yard even if they weren't actively feeding because they liked to stay near the feeder and bird bath. But I've seen very few around lately. I think a lot of the birds have just given up trying to get past the siskins and have gone elsewhere. I'm kind of bummed out about it. Is there a kind of food chickadees and finches like that siskins don't care for? I also have a suet feeder and a few chickadees have been eating that sometimes. But there aren't as many around and the few that remain really seem to want the sunflower seeds first and go to the suet only as a last resort.

 

[etudiant]

Maybe set up another feeder, so they can't hog it all. That works for hummingbirds, which are also often bullies at the feeder.
That said, you have a high class problem. Siskins are not so abundant here in NY.

 

[CMB]

I used to live in Portland, Oregon.

We'd get flocks of about 20-30 Pine Siskins in our back yard in the fall. In winter and spring they would be regularly present in groups up to 10. They typically left around the beginning of April even though the bird maps showed them as a year round resident. They would be pretty consistent in their departure time. Because on this I figured that they were migrating to different elevations as the season changed, or they found other food sources.

Siskins like Black Thistle too. A couple tube Thistle feeders spaced in the yard might help relieve the sunflower feeder.

You might also look at ebird.org and do a search for your area. You will be able to see how long they stay in your area and get a rough idea of the numbers that are normal.

 

[bitterntwisted]

They typically left around the beginning of April even though the bird maps showed them as a year round resident.

Full-year distribution maps can be misleading. Siskins do occur year-round in the Portland area but the density changes markedly and, while 'resident' in this sense, the individual birds are not resident and are likely all migratory. In summer you get a few of the birds which winter further south, in winter you get a lot of birds which summer further north.

This site has maps which better illustrate how the whole population shifts from winter to summer.

Graham