Is the bird feeding..on a Larch?
cheers
Looks like it
Just for the uninitiated like myself, the significance of larch is?
There is a commonly held belief that certain specie of crossbill prefer a certain type of cone to feed upon. Parkin & Knox (2010) in their work 'The Status of Birds in Britain & Ireland' (page 356) state that Common Crossbills feed on Larch and Spruce, where as Parrot Crossbills feed on Scots Pine.
However, if you got to this link, you will see that this very dedicated researcher has some interesting points to say about Crossbills!
http://pinemuncher.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/scottish-and-parrot-crossbill-catch-and.html
A fact underscored by the first known English record in 1251 by Matthew Paris who reported seeing them in feeding on apples in orchards near St Albans,
I understand..that Mr Paris deferred to curvirostra rather than pytopsittacus on the grounds that BBRC would have probably automatically defaulted to the former...on the grounds of general commonality over the latter?
Anyway both species were almost certainly ''lumped'' then, due to the absence of optics, which would have been required to obtain a credible submission.:-O
Seriously though....Apples?
Bravo! Given that at the time bats were 'lumped' with birds, I'm sure you're right that the species weren't split. I have a vague memory that there's a stained glass window in Paris' memory that includes a Crossbill.
The BWP gives a very long list of foods eaten so I'll quote the much shorter entry from the Handbook which, after conifer seeds, says "also apple-pips, hawthorn, ivy and rowan berries, seeds of thistles and grasses, buds, peas, aphids, caterpillars, small beetles, flies, etc." I'd hazard a guess that some of the more exotic fare relates to birds outside their normal range/habitat and suspect that insect foods may be frequently taken when raising young
Whilst the feeding preferences may well be generally true of breeding birds within their 'normal' range, I doubt that they can be applied with any confidence to 'vagrants' found elsewhere. A fact underscored by the first known English record in 1251 by Matthew Paris who reported seeing them in feeding on apples in orchards near St Albans,