10 Wednesday, January 13, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon For the Birds: Salmonella and irrupting finches By Elise Wolf Correspondent A c r o s s t h e c o u n t r y, small, striped brown birds with flashy hints of yellow are swarming bird feeders. These delightful birds are pine siskins. Since October of 2020, the tiny finches have streamed south by the thou- sands in a record-breaking migration event. In one sight- ing, birders counted a cloud of over 5,000 in October in Cape May, New Jersey. The pine siskins are not alone; evening grosbeaks, common redpoll, Cassin9s finch, red crossbill, and even red-breasted nuthatch have abandoned the north because the cone crop is lacking. Mass movements like these, called