White-winged Crossbill
Loxia leucoptera
Stocky, large-headed finch with a unique crossed bill. Males are pinkish-red with black wings and two bold white wingbars. Females yellowish overall. Nomadic; breeds at any time of year, whenever there is enough food available. Prefers spruce cones. Red Crossbill also has a crossed bill, but is duller overall without white wingbars. Often in small flocks. Rarely visits feeders. Listen for distinctive “machine-gun rattle” calls and high-pitched tooting, like a toy truck.
Identification
The two-barred crossbill is 14.5–17 cm (5.7–6.7 in) in length and weighs 25–40 g (0.88–1.41 oz). It has short legs, a forked tail, a crossed bill and two prominent white wing-bars. The male of the nominate subspecies has forehead, crown, nape and upper-parts bright raspberry-red. The scapulars are black or blackish brown with pink edges. The upper tail coverts are black with white fringes. The female lacks the pink and instead has greenish-yellow head and upperparts.<p>The two-barred is easier to identify than other crossbills, especially in North America, where only the red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) and this species occur. Within its Palearctic range, this species is smaller-headed and smaller-billed than the parrot crossbill and Scottish crossbill, so the main confusion between species both there and in North America is with the red or common crossbill.<p>The main plumage distinction from the red crossbill is the white wingbars which give this species its English and scientific names. There are also white tips to the tertials. The adult male is also a somewhat brighter (pinker) red than other male crossbills. Some red crossbills occasionally show weak white wingbars, so care is needed with the correct identification of this species. The chip call is weaker and higher than that of the red crossbill.<p>Another crossbill species on Hispaniola in the Caribbean was previously treated as a subspecies (Loxia leucoptera megaplaga), but is now treated as a distinct species: the Hispaniolan crossbill (Loxia megaplaga). It is associated with the Hispaniolan pine tree (Pinus occidentalis), and differs from the two-barred crossbill in darker plumage, a stouter bill, and its geographic isolation compared to other crossbill species.
Taxonomy
The two-barred crossbill was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the crossbills in the genus Loxia and coined the binomial name Loxia leucoptera. Gmelin specified the locality as Hudson Bay and New York. The specific epithet leucoptera is from Ancient Greek leukopteros meaning "white-winged" (leukos means "white" and pteron means "wing"). Gmelin based his account on the "white winged crossbill" that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had examined a specimen in the Leverian Museum in London.<p>Two subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Loxia leucoptera
- Authority
- Gmelin, JF, 1789
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Fringillidae
- Genus
- Loxia
Range and habitat
This bird breeds in the coniferous forests of Alaska, Canada, the northernmost United States and across the Palearctic extending into northeast Europe. It nests in conifers, laying 3–5 eggs.<p>This crossbill is mainly resident, but will irregularly irrupt south if its food source fails. The American race seems to wander more frequently than the Eurosiberian subspecies. This species will form flocks outside the breeding season, often mixed with other crossbills. It is a rare visitor to western Europe, usually arriving with an irruption of red crossbills.
- Breeding range
- PAL, NA : subarctic to n temperate Holarctic conifer forest: e Scandinavia through Russia to Sea of Okhotsk, s through sc Russia, ne Mongolia and probably Heilongjiang (far ne China); Alaska and Canada (except n), Rocky Mts. and n tier of contiguous US states
- Non-breeding range
- irruptively southward
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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