Birders Between late January to mid February I have had 100s of Pine Siskins daily at my feeding station on the city limits of Sault Ste. Marie. At times there was well over 500 birds but it was really impossible to estimate. During that period they ate over 200lbs of black oil sunflower seeds as well as over 200lbs of Nyjer seed. I am now a preferred customer at our local feed mill. At times the back yard was incredibly chaotic with birds flying everywhere. There were substantially more birds than the previous Siskin invasion 3-4 years ago. At the peak there were at least 8-10 Green morphs as well as numerous other odd looking birds. It is clear from my observations that "Green morphs" are quite variable and there is a cline between the regular birds and the brightly coloured , lightly streaked "Green Morphs". The variability in this species is striking when you have a chance to study hundreds and hundreds of individuals over many weeks.
I believe the Green Morphs are probably not all that rare. Between this invasion and the previous i have seen at least 50 different "Green Morphs" probably lots more. My estimate is it occurs in the 1-3 per hundred range. There are lots of birds that are "near" Green morphs" so it would depend on what criteria you use. The Green Morphs are clearly just the far end of a spectrum of plumage that includes very little streaking and more intense yellow-green pigmentation. probably some genetic link between these traits. I have posted some fairly amateurish video of "siskinmania" at the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzazjFHtC2M&feature=youtu.be Kirk Zufelt _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
