Red Crossbill - Female |
So I decided if the finches weren’t coming to Newton, I was
going to have to go to them. So I headed to the John F. Kennedy Library where
there have been sightings of large numbers of white-winged crossbills and a few red crossbills. Besides, I told myself, even if there aren’t any crossbills, I
will at least be able to enjoy the saltwater loving birds in the harbor.
This first thing I found when I arrived at the library was
another birder who had been tracking a flock of white-winged crossbills. We
started making our way down the row of Japanese black pines by the entrance to
the library, when a bird came up behind us with that big unmistakable
crossbill! The next thing that jumped out at me was that this drab gray-green bird
was much smaller than I expected (crossbills are completely new to me) and
secondly, she didn’t have white wing bars. A female red crossbill! We kept
following her as she picked over the pine cones until she led us right into a
whole flock of white-winged crossbills.
White-winged Crossbill - Male |
The female white-winged crossbills looked similar to the red
crossbill but the white wing bars were quite obvious and they also had
streaking on their flanks that the red crossbill lacked. Just then a bright red
male flew down to the ground. He was totally splendid with black wings with
white stripes and his torso seeming as though it was brushed in a vibrant
pinkish-red powder. I latter learned that when they molt in the fall, the
white-winged males have unpigmented barbules on the red feathers that cause
them to appear pink. As the feathers wear, the barbules are lost leaving them a
bright red in the spring and summer. Unfortunately none of my photos did the
male justice.
White-winged Crossbill - Female |
The crossbills all seemed to be pretty tame and unconcerned
about the two birders that were watching them, allowing us a great opportunity
to observe them. They seemed to be always moving, either from perch to
pine cone, or actively feeding and never pausing even for a second. One of the
favorite feeding positions seemed to be hanging upside down while extracting
seeds from the cones. Often times the red crossbill would be feeding on a pine cone adjacent to a white-winged crossbill. Apparently crossbills are very
efficient at extracting seeds as the curved beak acts as a lever when twisted
under a pine cone scale allowing them to grab the seed. There is an excellent
video from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology about white-winged crossbills feeding
that I will include below.
Red Crossbill - Female |
After about 40 minutes of observing these wonderful
crossbills, some of the white-wings started to leave the area. Slowly the
crossbills all seemed to fade into the pines. Until at the very end I was left
with the female red crossbill sitting and calling goodbye at the top of a pine,
before she too flew off to join her flock. Then the snow started to fall.
1/6/2013 Update: See the second post regarding identification of red crossbill types, including this crossbill as a type 3.
Your story really makes me want to be there!
ReplyDeleteHow many birds in this flock?
The other birder I met said he had counted 8 crossbills in a flock before I arrived, but he had only seen white-winged crossbills. They were really hard for me to count as they were moving deep in the trees and moved frequently. I estimated one male and four female white-winged crossbills and the one female red crossbill.
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