Red Crossbill
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AI overview
The Red Crossbill is a small finch with a distinctive crossed bill that it uses to extract seeds from pine cones, and it's found across the Northern Hemisphere. This bird is notable because different populations have evolved specialized bill shapes and sizes adapted to different types of conifer seeds, making it an interesting example of how birds adapt to their food sources.
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Wikidata facts
Show 4 more facts
- P105
- species
- P141
- Least Concern
- P9566
- diurnality
- P9714
- Africa
via Wikidata · CC0
Article
Loxia curvirostra The red crossbill or common crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. Crossbills have distinctive mandibles, crossed at the tips, which enable them to extract seeds from conifer cones and other fruits.
Adults are often brightly coloured, with red or orange males and green or yellow females, but there is wide variation in beak size and shape, and call types, leading to different classifications of variants, some of which have been named as subspecies. The species is known as "red crossbill" in North America and "common crossbill" in Europe.