14 T HiEY A UiDU BiOlN? (BU isl nara 
White-winged Crossbills 
By EMMA MAE LEONHARD 
For YEARS I had dreamed of seeing a White-winged Crossbill sometime and 
would have compromised to get even a glimpse of it in a tall evergreen. I 
had taken a few trips to Morton Arboretum, near Lisle, Illinois, where the 
bird sometimes appeared; but I was never the favored one. 
Then on the morning of November 20, the unexpected happened in my 
own garden in Jacksonville, Illinois. I was hurrying to my rose beds with 
a rake and a rattling tin tub to use in cleaning up the old leaves. My way 
led by a bird bath under a white pine tree. When I was within nine feet, 
I heard an unfamiliar “peet-peet,” and saw a bit of pink, black, and white 
flying through the pine boughs. At the same time I saw a bird on the edge 
of the bath — a rosy pink bird with black wings and tail, and with two 
broad white wing-bars. I gasped and looked. I couldn’t believe that there 
was a White-winged Crossbill in my own backyard. I stood watching until 
the bird flew to join the other one, giving its “‘peet-peet” song also. 
Forgetting my rose job, I went to the house for my binoculars and copy 
of Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds. Not trusting my identification, I 
investigated the picture of every bird possessing any shades of pink or red 
and was convinced that those two birds had to be male White-winged Cross- 
bills. I used my binoculars to see the crossed bills, since I hadn’t checked 
details of the birds when they were near me. I needed verification, and knew 
that I couldn’t get a message to our local ornithologists until later. I felt 
that no one would believe me if I reported the birds; they had never been 
reported for this area. I went on with my job in the rose garden, taking 
time frequently to study the Crossbills, quietly eating hemlock cones. 
The next morning J went out to the hemlocks, with little hope of finding 
the Crossbills, and there they were feeding contentedly. I telephoned the 
three bird authorities in Jacksonville. They came immediately and verified 
my identification, and all three added a new bird to their life lists. In spite 
of rain all day, visitors came to gaze at a bird new to them; the Crossbills 
did not seem to be disturbed in the least, and at intervals drank from the 
lily pool near the hemlocks. The Cardinals, Tufted Titmice, Chickadees, and 
English Sparrows came and went, but the Crossbills ate on, quietly chatting. 
The following day, also a gray one, the two birds remained all day, eating 
almost continually. By evening a third male White-winged Crossbill joined 
the first two. The third day, November 23, the birds never left the spot, 
and were either drinking from the pool or eating quietly every time I 
checked on them. By this time they had evidently eaten everything from the 
best cones toward the tops of the two voung hemlocks (the trees were full 
of tiny cones for the first time), and the birds moved down to the lower 
branches. Jt was fun to stand within six feet of them and watch them crawl 
through, over, or under the branches; grasp the cones in their crossed beaks, 
dangling on the ends of tiny twigs; right themselves on the branches; place 
the cones between their feet, and then work on the cones for their seeds. 
Throughout the day members of the Jacksonville High School Bird Club, of 
which I am sponsor, watched the birds. One boy enticed a bird very close 
to his hand by holding out a small hemlock twig with cones on it and talking 
