Pam’s Perspective
Pam Otto is the Manager of Nature Programs and Interpretive Services for the St. Charles Park District
The holidays are just around the corner, and with them come plans for parties large and small. If you’re hosting a bash, chances are you’ve got a pretty good idea of who might be showing up, at least as far as your human guests are concerned. But if your plans also include a feast for our wild bird friends, you may have absolutely no idea of who’s coming to dinner.
A well-stocked birdfeeding station is like an invitation to a big party, a wild, all-you-can eat affair that might also include an open bar (that is if your array includes a birdbath and, this time of year, a heater). You can expect to see a lot of familiar favorites, like assorted finches and sparrows, mourning doves, chickadees and our state bird, the northern cardinal. But don’t forget to keep an eye open for the more unusual visitors too—birds whose normal range is nowhere near Illinois or even the greater Midwest.
Pine siskins and common redpolls are two visitors from the north that occasionally make it to our area during the winter months. Usually driven by food shortages in their normal wintering areas, these species typically make a beeline for birdfeeders when they blow into town.
Pine siskins may at first be mistaken for American goldfinches. Both species have a preference for nyjer or “thistle” seed, and both have prominent wingbars. The finches’ wingbars, however, are white, while the siskins’ are yellow.
The real giveaway, though, is in the bills. Pine siskin bills are slender, almost tweezer-like—just right for plucking the small seeds that make up the majority of their diet. Finch bills, by contrast, are heavier looking, the kind of bill you’d expect on a bird that crushes sunflower seeds for a living.
If the bird you’ve pegged as being out of the ordinary has streaky brown plumage, but lacks the yellow of a pine siskin, and is wearing a little red cap, it could be that you’ve got yourself a common redpoll.
Common redpolls also fly down to our area from the north, though usually in smaller numbers than the pine siskins. They also come to feeders, but will sometimes be seen exhibiting an unusual feeding adaptation. Instead of shelling seeds one at a time, they gather several, storing them in a specialized “pocket,” or esophageal diverticulum, in their throat and then flying off to eat in the relative safety offered by a tree or shrub.
If you’re not sure if you’re looking at a redpoll or a house finch, another streaky brown bird with reddish highlights, you can again look at the bill. House finch bills are dark and heavy, while redpoll bills are slender—and yellow.
Now, if your mystery guest has brown and white plumage but is blotchy, not streaky, and if the red on its head is a facemask instead of a cap, you may be serving seeds to an exotic species, the European goldfinch.
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This bird is relatively common in the pet trade, and is becoming a more common visitor to local birdfeeders. The thinking is that a Chicago-area pet importer released a number of European goldfinches, perhaps on several occasions, and the bird is now becoming established in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.
Interestingly, one of the European goldfinch’s important food sources in its native range is teasel—a plant that is of great concern to natural area managers throughout our area. Introduced to this country by accident, through contaminated seed, teasel is a pugnacious invader that crowds out native species. With its spiky, and prolific, seed heads, it’s a common sight along roadsides and in disturbed areas. Perhaps its easy availability is one of the factors that, along with backyard birdfeeders, is contributing to the success of European goldfinches in our area.
The next time you’re watching the flow of feathered friends to and from your birdfeeders, take a few extra minutes to scan through the faces in the crowd. Those feeders you’ve hung, that invitation you’ve put out, could bring you some surprising guests all season long.
Pam Otto would first of all like to thank Bob and Kathy Andrini of Kane County Audubon for sharing their photo of a European goldfinch that visited the feeders at their St. Charles home. Second, she’d like to mention that if you’ve been bitten by the birdfeeding bug, you might want to become a member of KCA. The group meets the second Wednesday of every month at the Hickory Knolls Discovery Center, 3795 Campton Hills Road in St. Charles. She would be glad to give you directions, since that’s where she works as the manager of nature programs and interpretive services for the St. Charles Park District. She can be reached at 630-513-4346 or potto@stcparks.org.