2 Bar Crossbill? (1 Viewer)

[Gideon Knight]

Hi,

Do you agree with this being a 2 Barred Crossbill?

Thanks

Gideon

 

[Cheshire Birder]

Looks good. Where did you see it?

CB

 

[Gideon Knight]

Lynford Arboretum

 

[Jan-Paul Charteris]

The shape and size of the white bars, and the apparent small tips to the tertials in a couple of the pics look good (as opposed to Crossbill with white wing bars, of which there has been at least one I've seen photographed at the same locality )

 

[lou salomon]

The shape and size of the white bars, and the apparent small tips to the tertials in a couple of the pics look good (as opposed to Crossbill with white wing bars, of which there has been at least one I've seen photographed at the same locality )

i disagree. tertial tips (so far they can be seen) are small and bars are incompete or split. for me this is a common crossbill with bars.

 

[cameron2]

For me its a common xbill

 

[Gideon Knight]

I've spoken to several people now, and the general verdict is that this is a Hybrid. Not a pure TB xbill or even Common.

Gideon

 

[tconzemi]

I've spoken to several people now, and the general verdict is that this is a Hybrid. Not a pure TB xbill or even Common.

Gideon

????? Is that a new theory? We know that Common Crossbills with quite extensive wingbars exist, so why the hybrid theory and what would be the difference between the two? Thanks for giving me any published reference on hybrids. Interesting stuff anyway.

 

[Samuel Perfect]

Doubt it's possible to arise at a hybrid conclusion based on these photos as you'd probably need a good look at the tertials as well.

Surely a hybrid would be even rarer than TBC?

 

[dwatsonbirder]

Common crossbill for the reason stated by Lou. TBC would show larger amounts of white on the tips of the tertials. There have been several reports of "wing barred" crossbills in the Brecks over the last couple of years, and most refer to individuals such as this.

 

[creedence]

Don't expect a Two-barred Crossbill to always have white tertials; they wear off easily. I have seen several pics of them in the northern isles lacking white tertials; they are accepted by BBRC without white tertials and the current Surrey bird lacks them.

 

[Enji]

If I saw this bird in Sweden I would never think of Common Crossbill, never seen one with that much white. The white on the tertials can easily wear off, here are some birds from Sweden with just a little white:
http://svalan.artdata.slu.se/birds/gallery_imageinfo.asp?imageID=527130
http://svalan.artdata.slu.se/birds/gallery_imageinfo.asp?imageID=506265

And to make things even more difficult: this is considered a Two-barred Crossbill!
http://svalan.artdata.slu.se/birds/gallery_imageinfo.asp?imageid=522358

 

[Tib78]

Another contentious bird finally 'accepted' as a Two-barred on netfugl: http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.php?id=showpicture&picture_id=34839
Both KMO and Lars Svensson were in favour of Two-barred and apparently the so-called 'trumpet call' was heard (although by someone else than the photographer).

And if anyone knows the story behind the bird labelled 'A yellow/green male Common Crossbill Loxia curvirostra showing white wing-bars and tertial tips [...]' (plate 299, page 5) here: http://www.britishbirds.co.uk/search?model=pdf&id=9525
I would be very interested in hearing it.

 

[lou salomon]

it certainly is worth trawling a bit through the svala arkive with nearly 1600 pics of "bändelkorsnäbb": http://svalan.artdata.slu.se/birds/gallery.asp?artid=776
not that i have seen all of them but yet i have to discover an adult male with such a tattered greater covert wingbar. still, there is indeed huge ind. variation and some lack the median covert bar but i have seen no adult with such a GC-bar. this bird from öland linked above (http://svalan.artdata.slu.se/birds/gallery_imageinfo.asp?imageID=506265) is frightening though...i'd have called it a common xbill if it weren't for that delicate bill.

 

[Gideon Knight]

To be honest, I think this is one of those birds whose origin will never be known, unless someone manages to get a feather from it for DNA analysis.

Gideon

 

[JHDraytonbassettpits]

Some more details http://birdingfrontiers.com/