wolfbirder
Well-known member
Wondered what people's thoughts were, NOT about the question of whether they should be separate species, but whether the attached document is reliable?
It is from the Scottish Ornithological Society, but it may be a few years old. In the document you can listen to 5 so-called excitement calls, 3 of Common Crossbills that apparently have 3 types, 1 of Scottish Crossbill, and 1 of Parrott Crossbill.
www.the-soc.org.uk
Having just got back from Scotland from a weeks excellent birding, I was watching Crossbills at several locations, and I recorded the excitement calls of 5 large-billed birds at Curr Wood. It is useful with Crossbills that often the first thing you hear is the excitement call, upon a flock or group landing in a tree. And what struck me from the above 5 recordings (on the link) was that the Scottish Crossbills excitement call was easily distinguishable from all others, in that it was almost like morse code (stop-start etc), whereas all the others were continuous. Is it really as easy as this? My large-billed birds sounded exactly like the Scottish Crossbills on the attached recording in the link (my i-phone recording is identical in fact) and I now feel I could separate them quite easily. Common and Parrott should be quite easily distinguishable visually, so if you familiarise yourself with the Scottish excitement call, which as I say is quite different to the similar Common and Parrott excitement call, then separating the three is not as difficult as envisaged......is it?
Problem solved?
It is from the Scottish Ornithological Society, but it may be a few years old. In the document you can listen to 5 so-called excitement calls, 3 of Common Crossbills that apparently have 3 types, 1 of Scottish Crossbill, and 1 of Parrott Crossbill.
Identification of Scottish and Parrot Crossbills
SBRC position on Scottish Crossbill - update March 2022 Following analysis and consideration of the most recent findings on the use of the "type C" excitement call to identify Scottish Crossbill, as described below on the webpage, SBRC has concluded that the species can no longer be identified...
www.the-soc.org.uk
Having just got back from Scotland from a weeks excellent birding, I was watching Crossbills at several locations, and I recorded the excitement calls of 5 large-billed birds at Curr Wood. It is useful with Crossbills that often the first thing you hear is the excitement call, upon a flock or group landing in a tree. And what struck me from the above 5 recordings (on the link) was that the Scottish Crossbills excitement call was easily distinguishable from all others, in that it was almost like morse code (stop-start etc), whereas all the others were continuous. Is it really as easy as this? My large-billed birds sounded exactly like the Scottish Crossbills on the attached recording in the link (my i-phone recording is identical in fact) and I now feel I could separate them quite easily. Common and Parrott should be quite easily distinguishable visually, so if you familiarise yourself with the Scottish excitement call, which as I say is quite different to the similar Common and Parrott excitement call, then separating the three is not as difficult as envisaged......is it?
Problem solved?
