Across the street

Several times during the past few weeks, I've heard Red Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) calling overhead.  One time I could tell they were near the top of a tall redwood tree nearby, but I couldn't see them.

Tonight I heard them up there again, and this time I caught glimpses of them flying among branches, but somehow they disappeared and I couldn't get a photo.  

Later I was sitting in our kitchen with the backdoor open and heard them calling again.  So out I went, and this time I finally got one decent shot (not in the redwood, but in a neighboring tree):

 

Five crossbills flew out of the tree and headed east.  Photographed in Cotati on 15 May 2020.

 

Perched in the pines

 

Silhouetted and distant, but it still seemed worth documenting a Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) near Salt Point today (6 July 2019).

 

I heard one bird, photographed it perched in two different locations, and then it flew off.

P.S.  I first wrote about Red Crossbills in a post called "Nomads" on 9 December 2012, and also shared some photos from Bodega Bay in "Crossed at the tip" on 14 December 2017.

 

Crossed at the tip

I heard and then saw a Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) near the Ren Brown Gallery in Bodega Bay today (14 December 2017).

The crossbill was at the very top of a very tall pine tree, but I managed a few pictures for the record.  Look for the distinctive crossed bill (the upper and lower mandibles cross near the tip), the red and yellow coloration, and the notched tail.

 

 

I first wrote about Red Crossbills on 9 December 2012, so review the post called "Nomads" for an introduction to this interesting nomadic finch.

P.S.  I was intrigued by the genus name "Loxia."  It sounds like it might be derived from a Latin word meaning "dislocation."  So I'm guessing that term refers to the unusual crossed bill.

P.P.S.  For anyone interested in call types of Red Crossbills — in the earlier post, I recorded the crossbills and they were identified as Type 3 Red Crossbills.  The bird today sounded similar.

Among the cones

Well, I'm afraid these are just documentary shots.  I heard and saw a few Red Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) today — along Occidental Road, about 1.5 miles east of Occidental.  They were feeding at the top of a very tall redwood.  So that you, too, can keep your eyes and ears open for them — here are two pictures from 13 November 2015, and a link to an audio recording from Sebastopol in 2012.

 

There are at least three Red Crossbills in the photo above — all on the right side of the trunk, at the top, middle, and bottom of the picture.

And here are two more crossbills showing their red color (one in the upper right, another in the lower left).

 

The link to audio recording from Sebastopol on 9 December 2012 is here.  The crossbills I heard today sounded similar to those from 2012, so I'm guessing they were also Type 3 Red Crossbills.  [For more information about Red Crossbill types, here's an article by Matt Young.]

Hearing their call notes is one of the best ways to find crossbills, so listen for their two-parted call, especially where there are concentrations of cones.

Nomads

Well, these aren't great pictures or recordings, but this is an interesting species and phenomenon, so I thought it would be worth posting about.

When I walked outside of our house in Sebastopol on 7 December 2012, I heard Red Crossbills (Loxia curvirostris) calling overhead.  I ran inside to get my recorder and ended up with a couple of short recordings.  It's hard to see the treetops in our yard (redwoods), but when the flock flew off I could see that there were about 10-12 birds.

Then when I walked outside in Yachats, Oregon, on 8 December 2012, I heard Red Crossbills calling overhead again.  This time I saw two very large flocks of 40-60 birds each.

This morning I managed a few images before we left Oregon.  Here's a landscape shot with two birds perched at the top of a tree (left side of photo).

 

Crossbills are medium-sized finches.  As their name suggests, their most distinctive feature is their crossed bill — the upper and lower mandibles are curved and cross at the tip.  You can just barely see this in the silhouette below.

 

To help visualize the bill, here's an illustration:

 

Figure from Benkman, C.  1993.  Adaptation to single resources and the evolution of crossbill (Loxia) diversity.   

Ecological Monographs 63(3): 305-325.

This bill shape is useful for prying open the scales of conifer cones to reach the seeds inside.  (There is a much more involved story about bill sizes, food preferences, and call notes of Red Crossbills, but that'll have to wait for another time.)

Crossbills "follow the cones" — they are nomads, wandering to find good cone crops (e.g., spruce, pine, douglas-fir, hemlock).  They're most often associated with northern areas (taiga forests in Alaska and Canada) and montane coniferous forests, but some years they're forced to search widely for food and they show up in areas where they're not regularly seen.  They're considered uncommon residents in Sonoma County.

Adult males are red, while the females are greenish yellow.  Although it was too dark this morning to get good pictures, adjusting the exposure on the computer provided a hint of coloration (next photo).

 

The appearance of Red Crossbills in this area is unpredictable.  But this may be a good winter for them, so keep your eyes and ears open!

Here are two recordings from Sebastopol, CA, on 7 December 2012.  You can hear quite a few species, but try to focus on the short call notes that are sometimes written as jip-jip, jip-jip-jip.  [You may need to turn up your volume.  And if you don't see these sound clips in the e-mail message, just click on the title of this post to go directly to the web page.]
 
P.S.  Matt Young from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library has confirmed these as Type 3 Red Crossbills.