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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Acanthis" data-source="post: 1357500" data-attributes="member: 5750">Without droning on too much, there's a theory that during the last ice-age most european conifer woods consisted of pine species. Spruce forest and regular 'Common' crossbills supposedly only spread west from the taiga after the ice melted. In this theory the more sedentary Pine-loving crossbills ended up restricted to mountain ranges and islands around the Med, Scotland, and Scandinavia. In a couple of 'boffin-outputs' the Scottie was found to be vocally similar to populations around the Med, so maybe it should be considered a relict population of Mediterranean 'pine' crossbills. :-OI have to state that though I live in Scotland and have seen (and recorded) many crossbills, I've never found any Scotties in my part of the country. I did once take a trip up to the Spey and Dee valleys, visiting a few sites but I only found Commons. 10,000 Scotties up there. :eek!: How did I miss them? Maybe they were all up in Caithness.:-O</blockquote>