COMMON CROSSBILL 



Loxia curvirostra 



Common Crossbill is perhaps best known as a rather 

 irregular winter visitor, and it has been obtained in almost 

 every county in Great Britain at this season. In Scotland 

 it is a resident in some of the well-wooded central counties, 

 and breeds there in considerable numbers ; it has also 

 been seen both in the Orkneys and Shetlands, but is not 

 known in the Outer Hebrides. It has been recorded as 

 breeding in several counties in England, and is also an occasional visitor to 

 Ireland. 



The haunts of the Crossbill are the dense forests of Scotch fir, larch, and 

 spruce which grow in many parts of our Islands. They are very active birds 

 when feeding, and much resemble the tits in their actions, sometimes hanging 

 on to a branch or helping themselves about among the twigs with their strong 

 bills. They are exceedingly tame during the winter and early spring, allowing 

 the observer to come quite close to them ; they fly from tree to tree with 

 undulating flight rather like that of the Greenfinch. In the early spring I 

 have had good opportunities of watching them in the forests of Glenmore 

 and Rothiemurchus, as they are fairly abundant there. The males have a low 

 musical song, reminding one rather of some of the notes of the Starling, but 

 I never heard the females utter any note except a loud and somewhat prolonged 

 1 tsoop-tsoop.' When feeding, the Crossbill wrenches off the cone with its 

 powerful beak and flies with it to some thick branch, where it holds it firmly 

 against the bough with one claw and picks it to pieces, extracting the seed, 

 which is then cracked and the kernel eaten. 



The Crossbill is a gregarious bird, and usually wanders about in winter in 

 large flocks; even during the breed ing- season the males are usually seen in 

 small companies going to feed on the cones of the Scotch fir. When flying 

 from one place to another the male usually perches on the top of some fir-tree, 

 invariably choosing the highest twig; here he will sit for some time uttering 

 his loud call-note, ' tsoofi, tsoof), fsoofi.' 



VOL. II. M 45 



