Dayna,

Almost certainly Pine Siskins. They travel in flocks of up to 500
individuals; I saw a flock of 250 within a block of my house a few days ago.
Western Redcedar seeds are one of their favorite foods, along with seeds of
alders and birches, which they seem to like even better than cedar seeds.

Goldfinches often travel in mixed flocks with siskins, but don't seem to
like redcedar as much as siskins, though I often see mixed flocks in Red
Alder stands.

Good luck and good birding,

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Dayna
Yalowicki
Sent: November-26-11 2:37 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Flock ID please

Outside my back door today, I heard what sounded like a great number of
birds in a cedar tree. As soon as I looked up to find the source, a huge
flock of several hundred? birds erupted from the tree and flew over the
house to the trees across the street. Once they settled again, they were
backlit and so far away that the binos I had handy were not sufficient to ID
the birds although they looked to be the size of a warbler and light in
color. I now find that none of my books talk much about flocking behavior
and which birds travel in large flocks during fall. If someone could narrow
down the possibilities, this amateur could perhaps figure it out!

Dayna Yalowicki
North Bothell
Dlwicki at frontier.com



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