Red crossbill

Red crossbill
Temporal range: Late Pleistocene–present
Male red crossbill
Female red crossbill
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Fringillidae
Subfamily: Carduelinae
Genus: Loxia
Species:
L. curvirostra
Binomial name
Loxia curvirostra
Range of L. curvirostra
  Breeding
  Resident
  Non-breeding
  Vagrant (seasonality uncertain)
Loxia curvirostra

The red crossbill or common crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. Crossbills have distinctive mandibles, crossed at the tips, which enable them to extract seeds from conifer cones and other fruits.

Adults are often brightly coloured, with red or orange males and green or yellow females, but there is wide variation in beak size and shape, and call types, leading to different classifications of variants, some of which have been named as subspecies. The species is known as "red crossbill" in North America and "common crossbill" in Europe.

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2017). "Loxia curvirostra". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017: e.T22720646A111131604. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-1.RLTS.T22720646A111131604.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.