Pueblo's White-winged Crossbill

[Leon Bright]

COBirders--  Thanks to everyone who expressed their astonishment at the backyard photo I posted this morning.  When I first saw it I thought I was dreaming after the excitement over the weekend at Mountain View Cemetery.  To answer those who asked, the bird flew off within a minute of my taking the last photo, before 8:00.  I live less than a half-mile from the cemetery but there are no large spruce trees with cones in my neighborhood.  I believe the bird I saw and photographed Sunday is the same one I saw today, due to the lack of any news of other sightings (so far). Today I haven’t been able to be home between 10:00 and 6:00 so I don’t know if it returned or not.

  The odds that a solitary crossbill would appear in Pueblo and then in my back yard are truly astronomical in the negative. I certainly will check again in the morning in spite of the odds!

Leon Bright

Pueblo