On the heels of Ron's note from yesterday, today (Fri Jan 30) I had a green morph Pine Siskin at my feeders. It seems to have arrived along with a massive increase in the number of Common Redpolls (high of 40 yesterday after the first ones arrived just 2 weeks ago), up to 100+ today! I've only had a maximum of 2 Pine Siskins at any one time though, so in my estimation the rate of green morph Siskins is 50% (tongue-in-cheek, Ron), this bird was noticeably greenish along with the reduced streaking in the flanks, breast & belly and much yellower wing stripes. For two days, I've had a "rostrata" subspecies of Common Redpoll (commonly called the "Greenland" race), the bird is a good 10% bigger than the nominate "flammea" ssp, along with much darker colouration. Still awaiting my first Hoary. Yesterday there was a flock of 40+ Snow Buntings circling over the house and adjacent fields. Also, the local Sharp-shinned Hawk shows up every 3 or 4 days and the pair of Great Horned Owls are calling almost nightly now! Good winter birding, Frank Pinilla Richmond Hill, ON My place is adjacent to undeveloped fields and a local woodlot and kettle lake on the moraine (part of the Oak Ridges trail), just west of the intersection of Yonge St. & Stouffville Rd. On 1/29/09, Jean Iron <jeaniron@sympatico.ca> wrote: > This morning I saw a green morph Pine Siskin among the many typical > siskins at our feeders adjacent Brookbanks Ravine in Toronto. > Compared to heavily streaked brown morph siskins, green morph birds > lack or have reduced brown pigments (phaeomelanin) exposing the > underlying feather colours. Green morphs are greyish (not brownish) > with a slight greenish hue to the upperparts and the underparts are > lightly streaked, usually there is more yellow in the wings/tail, and > the undertail coverts are often yellow (not always) unlike typical > brown morph birds. > > The greenish hue seems to be mostly a mixture of yellow (carotenoid) > and grey (eumelanin) pigments. The amount of yellow in siskins seems > to vary independently. Some green morphs may be more yellow simply > because we see the yellow that normally would be hidden by brown > pigments. Other Pine Siskins show a lot of yellow and yet are normal > in terms of their brown and black coloration. I wouldn't call these > green morphs, but simply yellower (xanthochroic) siskins. Perhaps the > Sibley Guide (2000) was trying to cover both cases with the yellow > adult male Pine Siskin on page 534. > > This is one of the best winters for Pine Siskins in a decade. Watch > for green morph birds, which comprise about 1 in 100 siskins. They > are sometimes confused with Eurasian Siskins. See ID article > http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jmorlan/siskin_scan.pdf > > I thank Michel Gosselin, one of the authors of the above article, of > the Canadian Museum of Nature for information on green morph Pine Siskins. > > Directions: Brookbanks Ravine is east of the Don Valley Parkway > between York Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue. > > Ron Pittaway > Minden/Toronto ON > > _______________________________________________ > ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial > birding organization. > Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list ONTBIRDS@hwcn.org > For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/ > > -- Sent from my mobile device