Greedy Crossbill

[Naturenutz]

I managed to see some crossbills in the forest of dean today.Took me ages to locate them and ive never seen them before.I tried to get photographs but the light rain and dark sky made it difficult.However i did manage this silhouette shot,i thought they pull the seeds out of the cones not pull the cones off the tree .

[Wild-Woman]

Well done- I'd be pleased with a silhouette! Nice find too.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Naturenutz

I managed to see some crossbills in the forest of dean today.Took me ages to locate them and ive never seen them before.I tried to get photographs but the light rain and dark sky made it difficult.However i did manage this silhouette shot,i thought they pull the seeds out of the cones not pull the cones off the tree.

It depends on the size of the cone. Your particular tree looks like a larch which only have small cones, the crossbills will often snap them off and hold them in one foot whilst extracting the seeds. Look out for other finches around seeding larches too, they sometimes attract large mixed flocks of redpoll, siskin, goldfinch, brambling and chaffinch.

Cheers
Jonathan