Pine Siskin

From New Years Day through 27 June 2021, I banded 244 Pine Siskins. This photo was taken on 6 May. Except for a few last month at the Nisqually Refuge, I have not seen a siskin since. I wonder where they are now. Siskins last spring were starving and many died from Salmonellosis, a highly contagious bacterial disease. I released unbanded obviously sick birds. Two or three of my banded birds were recovered in Olympia, but not from more distant locations. During my 25 years of banding in Aberdeen, South Dakota, I banded 13,239 Pine Siskins, more than any other single species and, despite their being absent during some winters. Two recoveries illustrate their nomadic nature--one banded in Aberdeen on 10 March 1985 was found in Connecticut on 11 March 1988; another Aberdeen siskin, banded on 12 December 1992 was recovered near San Francisco, California, on 5 January 1995.