Leighton Photography & Imaging

search results
Image 3 of 3
Less

Pine Siskin

Add to Cart

This handsome little member of the finch family was photographed from my back porch south of Seattle, Washington. Declining in numbers for the past 50 years around the north where they are still somewhat common throughout Alaska, Canada and the mountainous areas of the Northern United States. It is believed that the cause of the siskin decline is the increase of brown-headed cowbirds throughout their range that lay their eggs in siskin nests. This parasitic behavior leads the much larger cowbird chicks to out-compete their "siblings" resulting in weaker pine siskin chicks, that are more likely to not survive.

Copyright
©2015
Image Size
6000x4000 / 10.7MB
Keywords
Contained in galleries
Finches
This handsome little member of the finch family was photographed from my back porch south of Seattle, Washington. Declining in numbers for the past 50 years around the north where they are still somewhat common throughout Alaska, Canada and the mountainous areas of the Northern United States. It is believed that the cause of the siskin decline is the increase of brown-headed cowbirds throughout their range that lay their eggs in siskin nests. This parasitic behavior leads the much larger cowbird chicks to out-compete their "siblings" resulting in weaker pine siskin chicks, that are more likely to not survive.