Siskin

Above: Male
Below: Female.

Siskins are attractive little birds that favour woodland. They are resident all year in the UK although their numbers are swollen in winter. They usually stay well away from areas of human habitation, seldom visiting bird tables, except in harsh winters or more usually in late winter or early spring when the natural supply of seeds has become low.

They are sparrow sized birds but are very attractive, especially the males. The male is mostly yellow and black. He has a bright yellow breast, chin and bright yellow borders to his cheeks. The cheeks themselves and the back and wings are greenish yellow with lots of dark or black streaks. The wings having a few brighter yellow patches. He sports a black cap and bib, pale grey beak, brown legs and a white belly and flanks, with heavy streaking on the flanks. The female is similar except the yellow is not so bright, the black on the wings and back is not so intense and the black cap and bib are missing altogether.

I have to confess to struggling to photograph siskins (as evidenced buy the rather poor photos on the left - which I will replace if I ever do get some better ones). Not that they are always hard to find. I've seen them regularly at Rostherne, Lymm, Moore Nature Reserve, Pennington Flash, Risley Moss and Pwllheli. In my early days I always ended up with underexposed pictures. That's because they are almost always found in alder trees feeding on the seeds contained in the small cone like fruits. This usually means that they are often backlit and because I didn't understand exposure properly in those days I often ended up with just a silhouette. Now that I've learned to deal with such lighting situations better, I seem to have struggled to find a suitable photo opportunity. At Rostherne they are usually plentiful but the alder trees are too far from the hides. At the other locations, listed above, they do come to the feeders but only as a rule in March, when the natural seed crop is pretty much exhausted. However, they are by no means regular or long staying visitors so a little patience is in order. Having got them close to a hide, say at Risley Moss or Pennington, you should be able to get some reasonable pictures once you'd sorted out the necessary correct exposure that is.

Pennington Flash and Risley Moss are my two favourite places to find these birds as the hides here make photography easier if the birds do visit. The row of alders lining the road down to the eastern reed bed at Moore Nature Reserve is also a good place to look for them, especially earlier in the winter. Rostherne has plenty of alders along the mere edge which always have siskins but it's not easy to get close to them here. The footpaths around Pwllheli golf course have siskins in the bushes in winter and there are plenty to be found around Lymm Dam.

They are not particularly shy. I used to live in Lymm and we would get siskins come to the feeders in my garden every March. They were not bothered if I was present (so long as me and the kids weren't running about the garden). Many times I stood just a few feet from them feeding without them showing any signs of being bothered at all. Pity I didn't have a digital camera in those days.