BryanP
Little known member
He's just an opportunist Bryan.
Hi Ken,
he's certainly a saucy opportunist.
The consensus here is that he might be ok through the winter here but will probably not survive the migration back to North America, I'm not so sure, he's very fit and seems to have adapted to his handicap with a slightly more aggressive and compensating behaviour.
Hi Richard,A banana feeder, that's a new one on me Bryan. I did try something exotic this morning and hung two halves of a clementine on a feeder -trouble was they'd frozen solid within 20 minutes so that's taught me not to be too imaginative.:-C A nice colourful flock of eleven Crossbills turned up today, I photographed them in case they were part of the Parrot Crossbill influx that had perhaps headed south, but they were all Common. Speaking of photography, I thought folks would find this afternoon's attached pic instructive....
Now thats too cold for me and I hail from Winnipeg or as we like to call it Winterpeg
Banana feeders are fairly common around here since bananas are plentiful and cheap. A large stalk of bananas and by that I mean one I can barely lift costs between 3 and 10 US dollars. Result, I can afford to keep the feeder stocked not to mention all the banana smoothies.
I didn't realize the name Parrot Crossbills existed till you mentioned them in your post. British Columbia has two species, the bog standard Red Crossbill and the slightly rarer White-winged Crossbill.
I was always fascinated by the similar parrot like behaviour of the Crossbills and the parrot habits I witness here in Central America. I've even seen Crossbills visiting salt/mineral licks just as parrots will do. Interesting behavioural niches.
Bryan