This morning I walked out our back door and saw a few small birds hopping around in the top of a large Eucalyptus tree that grows next to our building. I climbed up on the roof to get a better look and found that it was a group of Eurasian Siskins feeding on the seeds in the Eucalyptus gum nuts. They are pretty little birds that look like our pine siskins with bright yellow wing bars, black caps and yellow streaked breasts.

I spent about 10 minutes watching the little group feeding, often hanging upside down. Even thought the Eucalyptus trees look like they have a bumper crop of gum nuts, these are the first birds I've seen feeding on them. Perhaps other birds can't get the seeds out of the small holes in the cone.

The only other birds of note I saw around my building today were a Magpie flying over and a Black Redstart hopping around the patio.