Charismatic Clematis

 

Scarlet Clematis is endemic to the southeastern Edwards Plateau.

Blooming vines are always a welcome addition to our Hill Country landscapes, offering continuous interest through vibrant colors and varied bloom times. Some of the most popular vines are in the genus Clematis in the Buttercup Family.  While many cultivars and hybrids exist, there are nine native species in Texas, the most prominent being Scarlet Clematis (Clematis texensis), Purple Leatherflower (Clematis pitcheri), and Old Man’s Beard (Clematis drummondii).

Otherwise referred to as Scarlet Leatherflower and Texas Clematis, Scarlet Clematis is a herbaceous to slightly woody vine, with compound leaves of four to five pairs of rounded leaflets, and grasping tendrils which allow the plant to climb to about 10 feet.  It has bell-shaped flowers, held in axillary clusters of one to seven, blooming only on new growth.  The four red to scarlet-colored ‘petals’ are actually thick, leather-like sepals slightly recurved at the tips, occurring from March to August.  A ball of feathery plumed seeds follows the floral display.  Scarlet Clematis is uncommon, found along streams and on limestone cliffs and rocky slopes and is endemic to only a few counties in the southeastern portion of the Edwards Plateau.

Scarlet Clematis Bloom

Feathery Plumed Scarlet Clematis Seedhead

Purple Leatherflower, also called Purple Clematis, Bellflower Clematis, and Pitcher’s Clematis, is a 10 foot or longer vine that climbs via twining petioles. Its compound leaves are also comprised of three to five pairs of pointed leaflets, each having a raised network of veins on the underside. From May to September, flowers appear on long, nodding stems arising from the leaf axils, and are dull purple on the outside and dark purple on the inside. The four petal-like sepals are thick and united at the base, but are recurved at the tips.  While they also turn into a ball of plumed seeds following flowering, they are the least pubescent of the native species.  Purple Leatherflower can be found in woodland edges and thickets in the central, south, and western parts of the state.

Purple Leatherflower

Purple Leatherflower Bloom

Plumed Purple Leatherflower Seedhead

Known as Texas Virgin’s Bower and Drummond’s Clematis, Old Man’s Beard is a climbing vine to 30 feet, coiling its petioles along fences and other structures and shrubs.  The compound leaves are composed of five to seven coarsely cut leaflets. From April to September, star-shaped blooms of four light greenish-yellow, almost white, narrow and thin sepals with slightly crinkled margins surround conspicuously long stamens. Old Man’s Beard can be found along roadsides and in rocky canyons in the central, south, and western parts of the state. One of its common names comes from the 2 to 4 inch long, silky hairs on the seed cluster, giving the plant a bearded appearance which often lingers into winter. Another comes from the abundant cascade of white flowers, believed to symbolize purity and innocence.

Old Man's Beard

Old Man's Beard Bloom

Beard-like Old Man's Bloom Seedheads

Flowering Clematis vines have been known to symbolize ingenuity, cleverness, and travel, due to their climbing, rambling nature.  In traditional Chinese symbolism they represent wisdom and foresight, and in Japanese Hanakotoba or the language of flowers, they represent moral beauty and the joy of travelers. The intricacies of their showy flowers and long blooming season make Clematis some of our most charismatic vines!   

Aerial Assassins

Robber Flies are also called Assassin Flies, and for good reason!

What is that powerfully built, fly-like creature that waits in ambush to catch their prey in flight? It’s a robber fly, otherwise known as an assassin fly, which feeds almost exclusively on other insects, including other flies, beetles, butterflies, moths, bees, ants, dragonflies, damselflies, wasps, grasshoppers, and even some spiders.

Robber flies have stout, spiny legs, short antennae, three simple eyes on the top of their head between two large compound eyes, bristly bodies, and a short, stout proboscis that encloses a sharp, sucking mouthpart called a hypopharynx. They also have a dense moustache of bristles on the face called the mystax, which appears to offer some protection from their struggling prey. These flies attack their prey by stabbing it with the proboscis and injecting it with a saliva that contains both a neurotoxin and proteolytic enzymes.  This paralyzes the prey and liquifies the insides, allowing the robber fly to suck the material up through their proboscis.

In spring and summer in our area, some of the more common robber flies include the Bee-like Robber Fly (Laphria macquarti), Prairie Robber Fly (Diogmites angustipennis), and the Maroon-legged Robber Fly (Promachus hinei). 

The Bee-like Robber Fly is large (up to 1.25” long), hairy, mostly black with a yellow thorax, basal abdominal segments, and some yellow on the legs.  It mimics the American Bumblebee, and while it prefers to feed on small beetles, it will take a wide range of prey, often perching on tree stumps in the open.

Bee-like Robber Fly

The Prairie Robber Fly, also called the Slender-winged Hanging Thief, is about 1” long, with greenish-red eyes, tan to reddish-brown body, thorax with darker brown longitudinal stripes, and abdomen with darker lateral stripes.  It is common in both woodland and meadows, hunting bees and other insects, and typically hangs from vegetation by its forelegs while it consumes its prey.

Prairie Robber Fly

Another large robber fly is the Maroon-legged Robber Fly, up to 1.5” in length.  It has dark eyes, light-colored bristles around the face, a brown thorax, a cream-colored abdomen with thick black bands and a black tip, and hairy reddish-brown legs. It prefers hunting bees and wasps, and can be found flying around a variety of habitats, perching on the ground or in vegetation.

Mating Maroon-legged Robber Flies

Female robber flies deposit tiny, whitish eggs on low-lying plants and grasses, or in cervices in wood or bark, or in soil. After hatching, the larvae live in this detritus, feeding on other soft-bodied insects. Robber flies overwinter as larvae, pupate in the soil, and eventually emerge as adults.  This developmental cycle can take one to three years, depending on the species and environmental conditions. Robber flies generally occur in relatively open habitats with scattered vegetation, or in forested margins and woodland edges.  

Robber flies are generally considered beneficial insects due to their predatory nature, as they primarily feed on other insects, many of which are considered pests. These aerial assassins help to naturally regulate insect populations thereby contributing to a more balanced ecosystem!

Masterful Mallow

 

Turk's Cap is a wonderful native plant for a summer garden.

In the heat of a central Texas summer, few plants are as versatile as Drummond’s Turk’s Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii).  Also known simply as Turk’s Cap, Texas Mallow, Sleeping Hibiscus, or Manzanilla, this hardy native plant provides color, shade, and food for a variety of species.

For humans, Turk’s Cap is a gardener’s delight.  It thrives in woodland edges and limestone slopes in partially shaded sites, and does especially well under oaks or junipers.  It is drought-hardy, requiring little water once established, and blooms profusely from May to November.  It is a deciduous shrub, to 4 feet, spreading via roots but easily controlled.  Its leaves are alternate, simple, and roughly heart-shaped, with 3 to 5 shallow lobes.

A top down view of the five whorled petals of a Turk's Cap flower.

Turk's Cap produces small, edible, apple-like fruits.

The most common name of Turk’s Cap comes from its bright red flowers, comprised of 5 overlapping whorled petals, up to 2 inches long including the protruding stamen, and resembling a Turkish turban. They also look like small, closed versions of a hibiscus flower, hence the name Sleeping Hibiscus. These flowers develop into red, 1 inch wide, 5-lobed, apple-like fruits, giving the plant yet another common name of Manzanilla, meaning “little apple.” These fruits are edible for humans and wildlife and taste like watermelon.

An adult Turk's-cap White-Skipper butterfly.

Turk’s Cap is a host plant for several butterflies and moths, meaning the females lay their eggs on this species so their caterpillars can feed on it. Turk’s-cap White-Skipper (more common in south Texas), Io Moth, Yellow Scallop Moth, Straight-lined Mallow Moth, Cotton Tipworm Moth, and Window-winged Moth. Caterpillars eat different parts of the plant, from the tender young leaves to the flowers and fruits.  Young caterpillars hide in crevices on the host plant, while older ones live in shelters made of leaves. 

An Orange-barred Sulphur inserts its long proboscis into the flower.

Hummingbird beaks are the perfect shape to reach the
flower's nectar.

Turk’s Cap also does double duty as a nectar plant, for those animals that can find a way to access its sweet nectar.  Larger butterflies such as the Orange-barred Sulphur can reach into the flower with a long tongue or proboscis, hummingbirds such as the Black-chinned Hummingbird can uses its long and slender, straw-like beak, and some bumblebees and carpenter bees have strong mouthparts that can chew a hole or slit at the base of the flower where the nectar resides.

Bumblebees can access the nectar by cutting through the flower's base.

And some bumblebees just dive in head first!

The leaves of Turk’s Cap have been used in the past as an emollient to treat inflammation, aid digestion, soften skin, and soothe itching. The flowers can be used to make a hibiscus tea, and the fruits can be made into a delightful syrup or jelly. Now that you know all about the wonderful aspects of this masterful mallow, consider planting it in your garden this coming fall!

Roving Ringtails

Raccoon or Ringtail?

The common but elusive Ringtail or Ringtail Cat (Bassariscus astutus) is not a cat at all, but a member of the Procyonidae Family and a close relative of the Northern Raccoon.  The origins of its scientific name comes from bassar or ‘fox’, isc or ‘little’, and astute or ‘cunning’. In Texas, it is found mostly in the Trans-Pecos, the Edwards Plateau, and the Cross Timbers regions.   

An adult Ringtail on our back porch railing.

While ringtails are cat-sized mammals, their face is fox-like with a pointed snout, their body is elongated, and their tail resembles a raccoon.  The ears are large, and their big, dark eyes are each surrounded by a patch of light-colored fur.  The fur on their body is buff to brown-colored above and whitish below, with a spectacularly bushy, ringed tail.  This tail is often longer than their body, and is marked by a series of 14 to 16 alternating black and white rings (black rings incomplete on the underside) with a black tip.  

Close-up of the face of a Ringtail.

Mainly nocturnal but sometimes seen at dawn and dusk (crepuscular), ringtails are roving, solitary mammals that come together only to mate.  Their breeding season starts in late February and continues to mid-April, and females are in heat for only one 24-hour period during this time.  In early May to mid-June 2 to 4 cubs are born fuzzy, white-haired, and with a tail that is not yet colored with the distinctive black and white bands.  The cubs open their eyes at one month, and at four months begin hunting for rodents, insects, lizards, birds, and berries.  Ringtails are quite vocal, especially the young, and will make a variety of sounds including squeaks, chatters, grunts, growls, and hisses, with the typical call being a loud, plaintive bark.  In the wild, ringtails live an average of seven years. 

This Ringtail is eating sunflower seed that has fallen out of our bird feeders.

Ringtails can be found in our oak-juniper woodlands that have rocky areas associated with water, including riparian canyons and caves, limestone cliffs, and sometimes in man-made structures like mine shafts.  They can den in tree hollows, rock crevices, other animals’ abandoned burrows, and even seldom-used spaces in buildings.  They roam frequently, rarely spending more than three straight nights in one den.  Interestingly, the ankle joint of the Ringtail is very flexible and is able to rotate over 180 degrees, which makes them very agile climbers.  By pressing their feet against one wall and their back against the opposite wall, or by pressing both right feet against one wall and both left feet against the opposite wall, they are able to ‘stem’ or ascend/descend narrow passageways and wide cracks in the rock.  Their strong tail can provide balance for negotiating narrow ledges and limbs, and even allows them to reverse direction by performing a cartwheel!       

Getting access to our bird bath is an easy feat for the agile Ringtail!

Ringtails have many other common names, including Miner’s Cat, as they were often kept by miners and settlers as pets, to keep their cabin free of mice.  A hole was cut in a small box that was placed near a stove or fireplace, which acted as a dark, warm place for them to sleep during the day, and they returned the favor at night, hunting mice and keeping them and other rodents at bay.  In the native language of the Nahuatl Indians of Mexico, ringtails were called cacomistle, which is derived from the word tlahcomiztli meaning ‘half mountain lion.’  Whatever you call them, consider yourself lucky should you spot one of these beautiful, timid, and rarely seen nocturnal mammals!  

Neither Hummingbird nor Bumblebee

 

Hummingbird or bumblebee?  Neither!

Take a closer look when you see what you think is a small hummingbird hovering about and nectaring on the tubular flowers in your garden.  It just might be a Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis), one of our more common hummingbird moths.  

Moths in the genus Hemaris are often generically called hummingbird moths, due to their ability to fly and move just like hummingbirds. They are rather plump moths, and the tip of their abdomen opens a bit like a fan. Many are brown or black with some yellow, so they are also good bumblebee mimics. Several species have clear wings, as they lack as many wing scales as other lepidopterans, and they actually lose the ones they do have shortly after they emerge due to their highly active flight tendencies.  

This adult Snowberry Clearwing just emerged from a winter spent in leaf litter,
still with all the scales on its wings.

The Snowberry Clearwing is about 1.25 to 2 inches in length, with a yellowish thorax above, a black abdomen with a yellowish band near the tip often split in two, and the namesake clear wings. Like other hummingbird moths, they generally fly during the day, but may continue into the evening if they have found a particularly good nectar source. Their proboscis or sucking mouthpart is quite long, so they prefer to sip from tube-shaped flowers. 

An adult Snowberry Clearwing showing its yellow thorax, black abdomen with a
yellow stripe, and signature clear wings.

The adults start flying in March after emerging from the leaf litter beneath their host plant where they spend the winter as a pupa protected by loose silken cocoon.  Females attract males by broadcasting a pheromone from the glands at the tip of the abdomen, and after mating, they lay individual, tiny, round green eggs on the underside of the leaves of the host plant.  In the south, they typically produce more than one generation each summer, flying well into November.

The common name for the Snowberry Clearwing comes from the fact that it was first described in 1836 in the northeast, where it uses Common Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) as a host plant, a native plant in the Honeysuckle family that grows in the northern half of North America. In the southern US, the preferred native host plant for this moth is Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), which can be purchased at most native plant nurseries.  It is a high-climbing, twining vine to 20 feet long, with smooth, paired semi-evergreen leaves and clusters of red, tubular flowers.  In the wild, they also use our native White Bush Honeysuckle (L. albiflora), which is more shrub-like with twining branches that have smooth, paired deciduous leaves and clusters of creamy white tubular flowers.

Coral Honeysuckle

White Bush Honeysuckle

The larva or caterpillars of the Snowberry Clearwing are commonly called hornworms, due to the horn-like projection on their posterior end.  They are up to 2 inches long, blue-green above and yellow-green along the sides, with black spots and a black horn.  Uncommonly, they can also take a brown form with the same black spots and horn.  They match the foliage of their host plants so well that they are often very difficult to find. 

Snowberry Clearwing larva, green form.

Snowberry Clearing larva, brown form.

Observing Orbweavers

Drops of morning dew sparkle on a spider's web.

The family of spiders known for building flat, spiraled, wheel-shaped webs are called Araneidae, or the orb-weavers.  They are the most common group of spiders often founds in yards, gardens, fields, and forests.  In our area, those include the Black & Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia), Lichenmarked Orbweaver (Araneus bicentenarius), and Spinybacked Orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis).  While all of these spiders produce venom, that venom is harmless to humans but helps them to immobilize their insect prey.

Also called the Yellow Garden Spider, the Black & Yellow Garden Spider is a large spider that has an abdomen with a series of pale, yellow spots on a black background, and legs that are orange at the base, black near the tips, and often held in pairs. Females are much larger than males, with up to an inch in body length. While both appear in late summer, females can be seen through December in our area.

A Female Black & Yellow Garden Spider.

While not quite as common, the Lichenmarked Orbweaver has an abdomen with a pattern of light green and reddish-brown markings and two small humps on front.  Females can grow to one inch in body length. Its legs have alternating bands of orange and brownish-black, and the coloration on its abdomen acts as a natural camouflage against the lichen-covered branches of trees where it often rests.

Lichenmarked Orbweaver, showing its characteristic green abdomen with two humps.

Often called crab spiders, one of our most distinctive spiders is the Spinybacked Orbweaver, a small, half-inch wide spider with a hard exoskeleton that has six spines around the edge.  There are many color forms, but most are yellow or white with black or dark red spines. Males are tiny and seldom seen, but females can be seen year-round. They build their webs in the morning in shrubs or low tree branches.

Spinybacked Orbweaver, yellow form.

Spinybacked Orbweaver, white form, showing relative size.

Orb-weaving spiders are one of nature’s engineers, and their process to build a web is intriguing.  They start by floating a line of silk on the wind to another surface. Once that line is secured, they drop another line from the center, forming a Y.  The rest of the web is a series of non-sticky spirals ending with a final spiral made of sticky capture silk.  The non-sticky webbing is nearly invisible, but the more visible sticky webbing is what normally traps the spider’s prey.  As such, there is always a tradeoff between the visibility and stickiness of the web.

The webs built by some orb-weavers include a vertical zigzag band of highly visible silk through the center of the web.  This is called the stabilimentum, and is most often found in the web of a Black & Yellow Garden Spider. While scientists are unsure of the exact purpose of this structure, theories include it posing as a lure to bring prey to the web, a warning for birds not to fly through the web, or as a way to camouflage the spider as it sits on the web.

A male Black & Yellow Garden Spider
rests on the web's stabilimentum.

Many orb-weavers build a new web on a daily basis.  They often hide during the day and become more active in the evening, when they consume the old web, rest for a bit, then begin spinning a new web in the same general location. Consider all that hard work the next time you think about destroying a web!

 

Fall Fliers

 

Fall-blooming Blue Mistflower and White Boneset attract late season butterflies.

Butterflies are frequently thought of as insects that fly primarily in the spring and summer seasons.  This is because the emergence of many butterfly species is unimodal, which means that their numbers increase as environmental resources increase.  These resources are defined as their host plants and nectar plants, which also become available during these warmer seasons.  

However, there are some species that have bimodal emergences, or increases in numbers in both the spring/summer and fall seasons.  It is thought that the division of offspring between two different emergence times may have evolved to avoid producing all offspring at one time.  This approach would reduce the risk of species mortality in case of potential fluctuations in habitat quality. 

Whether they be unimodal or bimodal, butterfly species typically exhibit a tightly synchronized adult emergence in order to help them locate mates. Further still, some species are present in low numbers during most of the year, but their numbers increase during the fall.  In central Texas these species include the Tailed Orange (Pyrisitia proterpia), Julia (Dryas iulia), Common Mestra (Mestra amymone), Queen (Danaus gilippus), and White-striped Longtail (Chioides albofasciatus).

In the fall, the Tailed Orange is in its winter form, yellow with brown lines and blotches below and a noticeably pointed hindwing edge.  Its summer form is unmarked yellow below and the hindwing edge is less pointed. It flies late summer through fall, and uses senna species as its host plant.

Tailed Orange, winter form

The fast-flying Julia is mostly orange above and orange to brown below, with the female being a duller orange than the male and having a dark forewing band.  Its longwing shape is quite distinctive and it prefers woodland edges and gardens where it uses passionvine species as its host plant.

Julia, male

A slower, flat-winged flyer, the Common Mestra is pearly white above with a pale orange border on its hindwing, and mostly pale orange below with a thin, white spotband.  It is most often seen from June to November, and it uses noseburn species as its host plant.

Common Mestra

The Queen butterfly is often confused with monarchs, as it also uses milkweed species as its host plant.  Rich dark brown to deep orange above with white spots in the black wing margins, it lacks the strong black veining on the wings like monarchs, and can be found in any open habitat usually visiting flowers.

Queen

Straying into our area from south Texas, the White-striped Longtail is a dark brown butterfly with very long tails, and a prominent white stripe on the underside of its hindwing.  It usually perches with its wings closed, and uses various legume species as host plants.

White-striped Longtail

One way to increase your chances of seeing these fall fliers in your yard is to provide native plant species that bloom in late summer and well into fall. These plants include Frostweed, Gregg’s Mistflower, Blue Mistflower, White Boneset, Lindheimer’s Senna, Plateau Goldeneye, and Texas Lantana.  And remember, fall is the perfect time to plant!

Requisite Night

 

Light pollution is nearly non-existent in Big Bend,
allowing for spectacular star-filled night skies.

Most environmentally-minded individuals recognize the more talked about threats to our native wildlife, such as habitat fragmentation/loss, invasive species, and climate change, but not as many are aware of the dangers posed by light pollution. Up until the mid-1800s, humans and animals lived under night skies solely lit by the moon. Electric outdoor lighting became common in the early 20th century, but its use spread quickly, and the global extent of modern light pollution became clear.  

By 2016, it was possible to measure nocturnal artificial light with the advent of a comprehensive global satellite measurement system. Researchers found that more than 80% of the world’s population lived under light-polluted night skies, or skies where the glow of artificial light is significant enough that the stars disappear from view.  In the US and Europe, it was found that 99% of residents live under light-polluted skies.

Light pollution exposes animals to many dangers, including predators, starvation, exhaustion, and disorientation. Artificial light, like roads and fences, can create barriers that fragment habitat.  Slow-flying bats avoid feeding in or passing through illuminated areas for fear of predators such as owls and other birds of prey. Artificial light near their roosts can also delay their emergence at dusk when their insect prey is most abundant.  If they never leave their roost since it always appears to be light, they can even starve to death.  

Artificial nocturnal light can also lure animals in and lead to their destruction.  Many species of migratory songbirds are attracted to brightly lit structures at night, circling them, sometimes colliding into them, or becoming disoriented enough to lead to a depletion their energy stores which ends in exhaustion and the inability to complete their journey.  In some bird species, artificial light at night interferes with their ability to use natural polarized light from the sky to calibrate their internal compass.

Artificial light at night attracts insects, like this Luna Moth, 
and can disrupt normal behavior patterns.

Light pollution is also one of the many factors contributing to the rapid decline of insect populations.  Moths and other nocturnal insects orient themselves by moonlight, and this instinctual tendency is interrupted by artificial night light, luring them in to fly incessantly around a bright light, causing exhaustion, exposure to predators, and the potential to miss courtship cues from mates.  This is especially true for fireflies, as artificial night light can cause them to alter or cease their mating flashes.  Studies have also shown that light pollution can harm diurnal insects like monarchs, who flit and flutter all night when exposed to excessive light when they should be resting, and causing them to be disoriented from their migration route.

Light pollution facts and some easy solutions.

Unlike other environmental threats to wildlife, simple solutions to artificial nocturnal light exist.  The best solution is to have no nocturnal lighting other than natural conditions. If a light at night is truly needed, the amount that spills into wildlife habitat can be reduced through dimming, downward shielding, or switching to motion-activated lights. Studies are also showing that lights in the warmer color tones are less disruptive than bright white lights.

Travis Audubon promotes the Lights Out Initiative for Austin.

Austin is one of several cities across the US that participates in the migratory bird friendly Lights Out Initiative, which asks residents to turn out all non-essential lights from 11pm to 6am every night during spring migration (March 1 – June 15) and fall migration (August 15 – November 30).  This is one of many ways we can prevent light pollution from overpowering our native wildlife. Turn out your lights when they are not needed, and welcome the requisite night!

Irruption Disruption

Pine Siskins often feed in groups or flocks

While many northern species of birds fly south through central Texas during fall migration, some species go no further, and spend their winters in the area. Our generally mild winters and higher availability of food sources are the reasons they stay, fueling themselves in the cooler months as they prepare for northward migration in the spring.  

This cycle is not always predictable, however, as there are a few overwintering bird species that are nearly absent in some years, and overly abundant in other years.  One such species is the Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus), a small finch-sized, seed-eating bird with a sharp pointed bill, short notched tail, and streaky brown overall with subtle yellow edging on the wings and tail.  They flash yellow wing markings as they flutter while feeding or burst into flight, and usually occur in fairly large, gregarious flocks.  Their wheezy twitters are a dead giveaway, and they will stay all winter near a dependable food source.  

Pine Siskin showing the yellow edging on wings and tail

Pine Siskins range widely and erratically across North America every winter in response to seed crops, and flocks may monopolize your feeders one winter and be completely missing the next. In the winters when Pine Siskins are abundant, the phenomenon is referred to as an irruption.  In the bird world, irruptions, broadly defined as sudden changes in population density, refer to the movement of northern-wintering bird species to the south in years of low food availability. However, some recent bird banding studies suggest that some pine siskins fly west to east while others fly north to south in search of winter food.

While fairly common, the overall population of Pine Siskins is difficult to estimate due to their unpredictable seasonal movements.  However, this species is considered to be in steep decline, with an estimated 69% decline in numbers from 1966 to 2019.  Natural threats include predation by outdoor domestic cats, squirrels, hawks, and jays.  Man-made threats include pesticides, mineral deposits from salts used to melt ice and snow, outbreaks of salmonella from unsanitary feeders, and forest clearing.

Pine Siskins will quickly empty your feeders!

Winter flocks of Pine Siskins can be aggressive around food sources, often trying to disrupt and challenge feeding competitors by lowering their heads and spreading their wings and tail. They may even lunge toward and pick fights with other seed-eating birds such as Lesser Goldfinches and House Finches. Keep an eye on your feeders this winter and you just may witness this irruption disruption, when flocks of these birds can eat you out of house and home!