Red Crossbill - Ross Feldner

The Red Crossbill, also known as the Common crossbill, is a small bird in the finch family. Its name comes from distinctive mandibles, crossed at the tips, which enable them it to extract seeds from conifer cones and other fruits.

With the right habitat, Red Crossbills have a wide range across parts of North America, inhabiting southern taiga forests from Alaska to Newfoundland, and montane coniferous forests south to Georgia in the high Appalachians, Arizona, New Mexico, and the Sierra Nevada of California.

Its movements are closely linked to the availability of conifer seeds, its primary food source. Always in search of the next big cone-crop bonanza, Red Crossbills are highly nomadic and forage in flocks.

When young crossbills are learning to extract seeds from a cone the tips of both top and bottom bills begin growing. As a result of the pressure from prying, and twisting the upper mandible will curve down, and the lower mandible will curve up.