Scottish Crossbills sites in Speyside? (1 Viewer)

[hindleygreener]

I know this may be a long shot but any reliable places for these in Speyside,having a long weekend in Inverness next week. I have never managed to conect with these in the past. Mike

 

[Farnboro John]

I know this may be a long shot but any reliable places for these in Speyside,having a long weekend in Inverness next week. I have never managed to conect with these in the past. Mike

You might struggle to find anyone who believes in them, let alone the birds themselves!

John

 

[hindleygreener]

You might struggle to find anyone who believes in them, let alone the birds themselves!

John

Thanks John has been quiet on responses,maybe thats why i have never connected with any Crossbills in Scotland Mike

 

[jpoyner]

Crossbills of any description seem few and far between at the moment here. I've had some Commons in Spruce but not many cones on the Scots Pine. Not much help really but outside of the breeding season they range widely and always just a matter of luck.

 

[rollingthunder]

When did reliable reports of ‘Scottish’ Crossbills cease to be reliable?

Laurie -

 

[Richard Prior]

I’ve always wondered when were they ever reliable

 

[wolfbirder]

This thread doesn't help much either...................

https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=361178&highlight=Scottish+Crossbills

The attached shows overlapping areas for Parrot and Scottish Crossbills, also note the different tone in excitement calls.

https://www.the-soc.org.uk/content/...ntification-of-scottish-and-parrot-crossbills

This link is useful......
https://scotlandsnature.blog/2015/03/30/species-of-the-month-scottish-crossbill/

I recall Loch Dionach just outside Inverness was good for them but that was a few years back.

 

[jpoyner]

Identification of Scotbills is now only considered possible by means of songram.

 

[curlewsandpiper1980]

A couple days ago I was in the hills near Cromdale, not far from Grantown and Abernethy forest, and saw on several occasions, a flock of crossbills. I have an app to identify bird sounds on the field, which helps a lot in bird ID (and it draws sonograms). I saw them also for longer period of times as they were eating seeds of pine cones, and they were clearly crossbills, and then I heard the different audio calls here (https://www.the-soc.org.uk/content/...ntification-of-scottish-and-parrot-crossbills) and the calls were a perfect match for Scottish crossbills (what I heard was a type C call).

But I am aware that the genetic difference is quite small between common and scottish crossbills.