CROSSBILL

THE mandibles of these rather bizarre looking finches cross over at the tip, enabling them to prise open pine cones to extract the seeds.

Their lives are intimately linked with the crop of seeds on which they feed, and common crossbills may start nesting in January or February if there is a good cone crop – or, equally, much later in the year. Across their range they have been recorded breeding in every month.

The males are red, in varying hues, and the females greenish, and they tend to hang about at the tops of conifer trees, only coming to ground to drink, so are not always that easy to spot. Crossbills are fairly widespread, but move about to take advantage of cone crops and are found in plantations or forests containing conifers, particularly sitka spruce.