Red Crossbill

When Erika and I moved to Olympia just over two years ago, I predicted we would host Red Crossbills at our feeders. Finally, on 30 and 31 May 2021, a flock at least ten birds, red males and greenish females, descended from the surrounding forest and into our feeding station. The birds use their curiously crossed bills to open conifer seeds.

These crossbills showed no interest in our birdseed or suet, drinking, instead, at our water-feature. I’ve never given any thought to how crossbills drink. The process appears to be inefficient, considering that the crossed bills prohibit their tightly closing their bills. In some future post, I will write about the ten species of North American Red Crossbills—you tell then apart by their flight calls. Apparently they don’t interbreed. Unfortunately did not hear our visitors. The birds avoided our banding nets. Measuring a bird or two would have proved to be interesting.