Red Crossbills

At first when I saw this small flock of birds in the sunlight, gathered on the dirt road ahead of us, I thought they were a group of Goldfinch. My first glance had seen the yellow and greyish colouring and I almost drove on but then I also caught a glimpse of red. A male Red Crossbill! And a closer look told me that the yellowish birds that I had thought were Goldfinch were actually juvenile and female Red Crossbills. Crossbills get their name from the crossed positioning of their bills and this photo close up to the left of a juvenile Red Crossbill shows this feature quite well quite well. It isn't often that Crossbills visit feeders but Ihave included two pictures below of ones that did sometime around 2003. The first is of a male Red Crossbill and the last photo is of a White-winged Crossbill.

To view other postings on Red Crossbills please go to:
http://naturetales.blogspot.com/2007/03/adult-female-red-crossbill.html
http://naturetales.blogspot.com/2007/03/male-red-crossbill.html