Apparent "green morph" Pine Siskin & discussion

[Caleb Putnam]

Birders-

Like many, I have for years noticed occasional Pine Siskins in the larger groups which seemed unusually pale and sometimes had excessive yellow in the wings and tail compared to the typical individuals. Having heard of the so-called "green morph" Pine Siskin, I have tried without success to pigeonhole many of these birds into that category, usually writing them off as unidentifiable or variant Pine Siskins. 

In the past 4 days I have seen 2 pale individuals at my feeders, one of which I think is not a green morph (and may in fact be a hypomelanistic bird- seen 23 Jan), and another from today (26 Jan) which I think probably is a green morph. I have posted photos and some preliminary commentary to my blog which I'd appreciate feedback on. I include links to a recent purported green morph Pine Siskin from Ohio and the primary publication documenting how to differentiate the latter from female Eurasian Siskins in the older post.

http://aviantendencies.blogspot.com/ (see posts from 26 Jan and 23 Jan)

Cheers,
Caleb Putnam

Caleb G Putnam 

Sparta, MI

larus10 at hotmail.com


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