Siskin movements (1 Viewer)

I posted this Q before so apolgogies but I don't think a real answer was forthcoming.

The year before last, Siskins were the commonest bird on our feeder in St Petersburg, Russi during the summer with sometimes 20+ birds present at any one time.

Last year we didn't have a single bird. I'm promted to re-post as we have 2 right now as I write so maybe it will be another Siskin year. Birds move in winter we know that but why, when they were so abundent, would they be totally absent in the summer?

Andy

Local spruce cone / birch seed crop failure is the most likely cause - Siskins go where the food is, which often means different areas in different years.

We're surrounded, hunderds of km's in every direction by Spruce, Pine and Birch, can't imagie it all failed?

A

andyadcock said:

We're surrounded, hunderds of km's in every direction by Spruce, Pine and Birch, can't imagie it all failed?

A

Click to expand...

Very easily - the weather conditions that lead to a seed crop failure usually affect all the trees in a region. Most trees are actually adapted to this; being long-lived, a blank year for seeds doesn't harm their lifetime reproductive chances, but has the benefit of getting rid of a lot of seed predators which are starved out locally (except for birds like Siskins and Crossbills, which can move to a different area where the crop is good!).

Cheers Nutty, a font as usual

A