Red Crossbill

Loxia curvirostra

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family FRINGILLIDAE - Subfamily Carduelinae

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A stocky finch of mature coniferous forests, the Red Crossbill is dependent on the seed cones that are its main food. Its peculiar bill allows it access to the seeds, and it will breed whenever it finds areas with an abundance of cones. It may wander widely between years to find a good cone crop.

Cool Facts

• The Red Crossbill is so dependent upon conifer seeds it even feeds them to its young. Consequently, it can breed any time it finds a sufficiently large cone crop, even in the depths of winter.
• Because this species can breed throughout most of the year, its molts and plumages vary more than those of other North American passerines. Juveniles hatched during summer molt only between late summer and late autumn (at the same time adults molt). Many (but not all) juveniles hatched earlier (from late winter and early spring) begin to molt 100-110 days after hatching and then again during the main molt period in the summer.

• A crossbill's odd bill shape helps it get into tightly closed cones. A bird's biting muscles are stronger than the muscles used to open the bill, so the Red Crossbill places the tips of its slightly open bill under a cone scale and bites down. The crossed tips of the bill push the scale up, exposing the seed inside.

• The Red Crossbill shows a great deal of variation in bill shape and voice, and it may in fact be composed of several different species. Eight different flight call types have been described north of Mexico, and birds giving each type have slightly differently shaped bills and prefer to feed on different tree species with differently sized cones.

Description

• Size: 14-20 cm (6-8 in)
• Wingspan: 25-27 cm (10-11 in)
• Weight: 24-45 g (0.85-1.59 ounces)

• Stocky red or greenish finch.
• Plain blackish wings.
• Short, notched tail.
• Thick, curved bill with crossed tips.

• No wingbars, or thin whitish ones.
• Wing and tail feathers blackish brown.
• Undertail feathers dark with pale edges.
• Bill black with gray near the cutting edges.
• Eyes dark brown.
• Legs and feet black.

Sex Differences

Male red, female grayish or greenish brown.

Male

Head and body deep brick red to reddish yellow, or greenish. Wing feathers blackish brown, without wingbars. Tail blackish brown.

Female

Uniformly olive or grayish, with greenish or greenish yellow chest and rump. Wing feathers blackish brown, without wingbars. Tail blackish brown.

Immature

Juvenile with heavy dark streaks on whitish chest. Back gray-brown tinged with pale green or brown. Rump yellowish with dark streaks. Thin buffy wingbars. Immature like adult female, but some males may be reddish or mixed red and yellow.

Similar Species

• White-winged Crossbill has black wings and bold white wingbars in all plumages; male is more pinkish red.
• Juvenile resembles Pine Siskin, but it has straight, thinner bill and yellow in the wings.

Sound

Song a series of short warbled clicks and whistles. Call notes a series of short, hard "jips."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Mostly resident from southern Alaska to Newfoundland, southward to northern United States and farther, mostly in mountains, to North Carolina and Central America. Also across northern Eurasia, southward in mountains to northern Africa, southeastern Asia, and the Philippines.

Winter Range

Remains throughout breeding range in winter, but in some years may wander much farther southward.

Habitat

Mature coniferous forests.

Food

Conifer seeds, especially spruce, pine, Douglas-fir, and hemlock.

Behavior

Foraging

Hangs on cones and extracts seeds with oddly-shaped bill. Feeds in flocks. Takes grit and salt from roads.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Open cup of twigs, lined with grasses, lichen, conifer needles, bark shreds, hair, plant fibers, and feathers. Well concealed in dense cover on branches of coniferous tree.

Egg Description

Whitish, with reddish streaks and splotches concentrated around large end.

Clutch Size

Usually 3 eggs. Range: 2-6.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless with sparse down.

Conservation Status

No reliable estimates available of population numbers because of nomadic movements. Populations appear to be stable in most areas. May be declining in Pacific Northwest rainforests where deforestation is rapid. Formerly common in Newfoundland; now rare, possibly extinct because of competition with the introduced Red Squirrel.

Other Names

Béc-croise des sapins (French)
Pico cruzado (Spanish)
Crossbill, Common Crossbill (British) (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Adkisson, C. S. 1996. Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra). In The Birds of North America, No. 256 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.