Species: Loxia curvirostra

Red Crossbill

Species

Birds

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Terrestrial vertebrates: birds

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Craniata

Class

Aves

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Fringillidae

Genus

Loxia

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.103114

Classification

Other Global Common Names

Picotuerto Rojo - bec-croisé des sapins

Informal Taxonomy

Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Perching Birds

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Passeriformes - Fringillidae - Loxia - At least nine species exist in North America and additional species exist outside North America (AOU 1998). See Groth (1988) for information suggesting that Appalachian Red Crossbills comprise two distinct species. Sympatric breeding without interbreeding suggests that L. SCOTIA (Scottish Crossbill) is a valid species, not a subspecies of L. CURVIROSTRA (Knox 1990). According to Groth (1990, 1993), the Red Crossbill comprises at least seven different, rarely hybridizing, species, each specializing on a different species or even a single variety of conifer (Benkman 1993). More research is needed to clarify the taxonomic status of the eight North American call types of Red Crossbill (DeBenedictus 1995).

Ecology and Life History

Migration

true - false - false - Wanders irregularly when population high and or food supply low (Terres 1980).

Non-migrant

true

Locally Migrant

false

Food Comments

Eats seeds, buds, and insects. Forages in trees; also picks up seeds from the ground. Feeds on a wide variety of seeds: e.g., pine, fir, spruce, hemlock, larch, birch, alder, elm, etc. (Terres 1980); mostly conifer seeds (Benkman 1990).

Reproduction Comments

Breeding season is variable, depends in part on food supply. Clutch size is 3-4, sometimes 5. Incubation, by female (fed by male), lasts about 12-14 days. Young leave nest about 17 days after hatching (Terres 1980), may be fed for two more weeks.

Ecology Comments

Forms flocks when not breeding; does not maintain a feeding territory. Pairs may forage more than 500 meters from nest (Bailey 1953, Nethersole-Thompson 1975).

Length

Weight

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

Global Status Last Reviewed

1996-12-04

Global Status Last Changed

1996-12-04

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - As traditionally defined, this species occurs widely in Eurasia and North America. In North America it is resident from southeastern Alaska eastward across boreal Canada to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and south in the west to northern Baja California and through the mountains to Nicaragua, and south in the east to Great Lakes region, southern Appalachian Mountains, New York, and New England. (Adkisson 1996, AOU 1998). In the nonbreeding season this species disperses irregularly throughout much of the remainder of the contiguous United States. The several types or species of red crossbills are highly nomadic and may shift breeding ranges by as much as a thousand miles between one breeding season and the next (Groth 1993).

Global Range Code

Global Range Description

>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.103114