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Which Crossbill ? (north of Sweden) (1 Viewer)

Very difficult to be sure on the photo alone, did you hear it call? Bill looks a little heavy, but to be honest could easily be a Common Crossbill. The angle of the shot, from below, may be adding a sense of greater depth to the bill.
 
It called a tiny littlee "whining" and a littlee "drilling", very modest. The bill looked rather straight and long, so I think Common CB.

Is it common that Two-barred CB and Common CB go together ?

//Ben
 
tarzzz said:
Hi.

Which Crossbill is this ?

I coul'd ID Two-barred in the pine next to this one. But this bird lacks the light wingbars..so..?

http://orre.mine.nu/bird_id/id21/id21.htm

Thanks

//Ben

I'd go with Parrot Crossbill, though I agree the thick bill could be as a result of optical distortion. The bill, especially lower mandible is much thicker than typical Common, and the posture of the bird in one of your pics is typical Parrot. However, photo's can be misleading. Parrot bills are not as big as everyone thinks ! If you have Hayman's plates they are way too big. The Collins bird guide is about right for all crossbill sp. IMO.

Linz
 
tarzzz said:
It called a tiny littlee "whining" and a littlee "drilling", very modest. The bill looked rather straight and long, so I think Common CB.

Is it common that Two-barred CB and Common CB go together ?

//Ben

Not unusual.

Parrot Crossbill call I am familiar with has quite a deep, heavy call, single note, often repeated, slightly puntuated at the end.

The calls you heard fit Common Crossbill.

Crossbills are far from Easy though....
 
Looking again, would say the culmen is a bit straight for a typical Parrot, which would have steeper downcurve, but that lower mandible looks nearly the same depth as the upper ! If it is not a Parrot then it is a very big billed curvirostra (12mm ish )!

I notice it is in a scots pine tree. Was it cracking open the unripe green cones ? If so, depending on how the cones look you could possibly ID from this too. Commons would be happier eating spruce and larch at this time of year.

An interesting bird,

Linz
 
buzzard12 said:
.

The calls you heard fit Common Crossbill.

Crossbills are far from Easy though....

You must know crossbill calls better than me then. All crossbill types produce this chittering subsong you describe and at this time of year in my experience it is the "pine" crossbills that do it. Happening all over Deeside just now.

The flight calls are more distinct :

Commons = "chip", "glip", "gi-lip", emphasis on "i"

Parrots = "choop", "chup", emphasis on "oo"

Linz
 
The fact you ID'd a two barred in Pine is also unusual from a habitat perspective as they could not open the closed scots pine cones. Are you sure it wasn't a young Common ( or parrot) with white markings on tertials and greater coverts which is quite common ?

Here is one from Deeside ( sorry the pic is crap it was handheld on a really awful day as the bird came down to a puddle to drink ). This one is a Scottish Parrot Crossbill.

Linz
 

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These were going more "Commons = "chip", "glip", "gi-lip", emphasis on "i"

than Parrots = "choop", "chup", emphasis on "oo"
"

I thought they sounded VERY small for their size.. rather like Redpolls..or something..


I got more photos too, but I thought I get too boring putting out so many photos..

//Ben
 
Mmm, I still think way too big for "Common". They chip sporadically when feeding but this is usually very quiet. The calls we use as diagnostic are the pre-flight crescendo's a flock will give and the actual calls during flight. Are you describing these ? If it is ones given while in the tree I would probably discount these.

Put more pics on please, not boring for me
 
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Note also, that these were in ABisko in the very north of Sweden.. according to my book (Collins fbird guide) neither of the three shoul'd be here ?

As told earlier I ID'ed Two-barred (juv ?) .. so Collins is not so reliaible ?

See attached pic.

Thanks for your effort trying to ID ! :loveme:

//Ben
 

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The Two-barred must be 100% from my pic above Griffin ? There were 3 of the Two-barred and about 5 of "the others".

//Ben
 
tarzzz said:
The Two-barred must be 100% from my pic above Griffin ? There were 3 of the Two-barred and about 5 of "the others".

//Ben

I had a big post but lost it when broadband connection failed. This will have to be brief as I am leaving for work.

Any more pics. Your juvenile ( it is a juv ) appears to be attempting to eat the seeds from a SP cone - not sure if it is an open one ( with very few seeds left by now ) or if it is unopen eg. next years cone. Cracking open a hard, closed brown cone for a two-barred would be hard work though it could tease the tops open and extract these seeds ! A sample of cones would be very telling for me.

Would like to see more pics of the wing barred ones if you have any, especially mandibles.

Location not unusual - they could be migrants from Russia or Finland if you don't get them normally in your area, though I'd be surprised if you don't.
 
yes, that is 2-barred, but the others... there were 6-8 other Crossbills, some of them NOT 2-barred...

//Ben
 
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