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24

Common Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) Alternate name(s): "Red Crossbill" (North America) German name(s): "Fichtenkreuzschnabel" Size: 15-17 cm; wing span 27-31 cm Weight: 25-50 g

Europe: Family Group 24 Family Group 24 Table White Wagtail Western Yellow Wagtail Grey Wagtail Tawny Pipit Red-throated Pipit Tree Pipit Meadow Pipit Water Pipit Eurasian Rock Pipit Greater Short-toed Lark Calandra Lark Woodlark Eurasian Skylark Bearded Reedling House Sparrow Tree Sparrow Spanish Sparrow Rock Sparrow Trumpeter Finch European Serin Atlantic Canary Red-fronted Serin Eurasian Siskin Common Redpoll Arctic Redpoll Common Linnet Brambling Common Chaffinch European Goldfinch Eurasian Bullfinch Hawfinch Common Crossbill Common Rosefinch Yellowhammer Cirl Bunting Common Reed Bunting Ortolan Bunting Black-headed Bunting Corn Bunting Rock Bunting House Bunting Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names European birds home page

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Common Crossbills are tall and heavy finch-like birds. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. Male Common Crossbills are mostly red, sometimes greyish red. Their wings are grey with red edges to the feathers. Only parts of the sides and eye-rings are homogeneously grey, while other parts of the sides and the edges of the ear coverts are streaked light grey and red. Females have a grey head, darker-grey wings, an olive-grey to yellow-grey front and a yellowish-green rump. The head, back and the fringes of the ear coverts are lightly streaked darker grey. Both sexes have dark irises and grey bills. These bills are their most striking feature. The very long upper mandible, which is slightly down-curved, protrudes far over the shorter lower mandible and the two are crossed. The bills of females are less curved and less crossed than those of males. The legs and feet of both sexes are orange-grey. Juvenile Common Crossbills are all-grey, with a lighter-grey throat than the rest of the plumage. The wings are mid-grey; the rest of the body is a lighter shade of grey, with mid-grey streaking everywhere.

Taxonomy, classification See Common Crossbill at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Common Crossbill is available HERE . Common Crossbills are found on all continents of the northern hemisphere and on Iceland. There are many different races that can compiled into two groups, for Eurasia and North America (for details see, e.g. Wikipedia ). Their preference for boreal/conifer forest/taiga leads to a distribution with preference for mid- to high-altitude environments, such as low and high mountain ranges (up to the tree line) and plateaus. Their distribution ranges over the width of Eurasia, from western Europe in the West via Asia Minor and mid- to high-latitude Asia to Japan in the East. They are also found over the entire width of the North American continent, from Newfoundland to southern Alaska and down to central Mexico as well. Over their range Common Crossbills are mostly sedentary, but there can be irruptive events in case of food shortages in their preferred habitats. In Europe Common Crossbills are found in the mountainous regions of primarily eastern Spain, including the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennin mountains in Italy and the highlands of central, eastern and south-eastern Europe, including the Balkans and parts of Greece. They are also found in Scandinavia, except the northern-most parts and the highest-altitude peaks in southern Norway, and in the taiga of eastern Europe, up to and beyond the Urals and the Caucasus mountains. Common Crossbills have a strong preference for conifer forest and woodland, of various types of spruce, but also fir and pines, high up in which they also nest.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Race "curvirostra" S. Cuturilov reports spotting a Common Crossbill, nominate race "curvirostra", on Jabuka mountain, south-western Serbia, in June 2017. All sighting and photographic information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by S. Cuturilov.

Photos

Race "curvirostra"

ADULT

FEMALE

Frontal view of a female Common Crossbill prising open a pine cone (photo courtesy of S. Cuturilov)
[Jabuka mountain, Serbia, June 2017]

Near-lateral view of a female Common Crossbill in a pine tree (photo courtesy of S. Cuturilov)
[Jabuka mountain, Serbia, June 2017]

Food, Diet

Female Common Crossbill feeding on pine seeds (photo courtesy of S. Cuturilov)
[Jabuka mountain, Serbia, June 2017]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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