A Flood of Finches

These days, when I step out the back door to the deck, it sounds like I have entered the aviary at the National Zoo. A deafening racket of bird song greets me; non-stop twitters, zips, whistles, and other notes strung together to make a cacophony of sound that would make Stravinsky proud!  The finches have arrived! 

It seems three convergent flocks of finches have just discovered my thistle feeders that had previously been ignored, to the point that I thought I had been sold stale seed.  Perhaps I had just put them out too soon, but now, in an example of “be careful what you wish for”, I have oak trees full of finches and their close relatives. 

The American Goldfinch is here for the winter, in drabber garb but entertaining still in their dipping “pot-a-to-chip” flight and twittery ways.  I used to tell my walking ladies that they could always remember the calls of goldfinch if they would just remember that they “talk” constantly, hardly stopping to draw breath, not unlike their fearless guide who operates pretty much the same way! 

But now, I am in the Hill Country of TX which is the eastern part of the range of the Lesser Goldfinch, who it may be pointed out, is only Lesser by about a ¼ to ½ inch in size, but are no means “lesser” in sound production.  Eh gad!  They seem like the American Goldfinch on speed!   Sounds tumble out of them like crazy!  A “song” that incorporates songs of other birds but comes out so fast that I could never hope to catch whether that part was from the Ash Throated Flycatcher (whose song I wouldn’t recognize anyways!) or a Verdin (ditto on not knowing that either), or a scrub jay, which I would know.  They are said to mimic those birds and then some but I surely will need more practice before I can pick them out.

The males are strikingly handsome, with black that covers their head and backs when they are in breeding plumage.  I won’t get to see the brilliant yellow of the American Goldfinch for it will head north before breeding season but I may get lucky and have the Lesser nest in my yard for they are year round residents here.  They, like other finches, love thistle and anything in the sunflower family to include dandelions and I have plenty of both.  We are lucky to have a natural gas line that runs behind the property providing just the weedy kind of cover so many birds like, and host plants for so many of the butterflies that are constantly cruising about.

But even louder than these high-speed, singing goldfinches are the Pine Siskins who often play a “birds of a feather flock together” scenario with the finches.  They are streaky birds that you might mistake for a sparrow, but to look at its slightly curved bill and the yellow that the males sport on their wings marks them out as Siskins.  And their call is also nonstop with the added interspersing of a  “Ziiiiiiiipppppp” that has been likened to a piece of paper ripping slowly.  It was an unfamiliar sound to me and the amazing thing was that, although it sounded like there were huge numbers of them in the trees, it took me the longest time to actually “see” one.  They favor the tops of trees, so although I could catch motion in the leaves, and practically needed ear protection to stand under them, I just couldn’t get a clear look.  Until of course, they too discovered the thistle feeder and now I can see them eye-to-eye whenever I want.

I mentioned I put this under the “be careful what you wish for” category because once they DO discover the thistle, they can’t get enough of it, and if you have priced thistle lately, you know that you can either afford to feed the birds, or feed yourself.  But we can tighten our belts for awhile for the Americans will be headed north soon, and the Pine Siskins are said to be erratic in their movements; now you see them now you don’t.   I don’t remember any being here last winter, and yet this year, here they are, so, enjoy the moment. 

The Lesser Goldfinches are here year round so maybe I will get to watch their courting, high-speed chases through the trees and the sweet touching of bills, soft coos,  and offering of seed to each other that lets you know “finch love” is in the air.

Well, I pointed out that the way to remember all these finches was that they “talked too much”, rather like I am doing right now!  I have carried on long enough and will now let you return to the bird sounds in your own back yard that are perhaps ramping up no matter where you live.  Chickadees in the north are probably already making their “fee-bee” calls as they set up breeding territory and cardinals are waking you with their “cheer cheers” and oh, my missed Song sparrows, are ready to spill out their often repeated calls.  Even if a blizzard is in your weekend forecast again, know that winter is on a downhill slide and all the birds know it.