Eurasian Siskin Identification
What I look like
The Eurasian Siskin has yellow-green plumage.
It has a black cap and chin and yellow cheeks with greenish shades.
The upper body is yellowish-green.
The chest and belly are more or less yellow with streaks on the belly.
The female is greener and grayer, her belly is less yellow and more streaked, and she does not have a black cap.
The wings are black with a yellow wing bar.
In flight, the wing color is very noticeable.
Its beak is strong and pointed.
My songs, my calls
The Eurasian Siskin is more easily noticed by its calls and songs because it is very discreet.
In flight, it emits a melancholic "tuli".
Its song is a musical twittering mixed with imitation calls and ends with a nasal flourish.
It usually sings at the top of trees or in flight, starting from the end of January.
How I behave
The Eurasian Siskin is very sociable. It often moves in groups, both in winter and during the breeding season.
You can see it performing acrobatics like tits in the alders in search of seeds.
It visits feeders mostly at the end of winter.
How I reproduce
The breeding season of the Eurasian Siskin extends from February to August.
It produces 2 broods per year of 3 to 5 greenish eggs, speckled with brown.
It nests in spruce trees because the abundance of spruce seeds is used to feed the chicks.
Its nest is a cup of moss, grass, and twigs.
What I eat
The Eurasian Siskin feeds on spruce seeds during the warm season.
In winter, it eats the seeds from alder cones.
Its strong and pointed beak is perfectly adapted for extracting seeds from cones.
It also eats other seeds such as thistle, birch, and dandelion seeds, and sometimes caterpillars.
Where to find me
The Eurasian Siskin lives in coniferous and mixed forests but also in gardens.
It is a medium-distance migrant. It leaves mountainous regions at the end of winter to go to the plains.