White-winged Red Crossbill , Park County

[John D]

CO Birders :

    A cautionary tale .

 A group of us searching this afternoon for the White-winged Crossbills reported by David Sudjian in Park County along CR 98 recently found a type 4 male Red Crossbill with two narrow white wing bars along CR 403  .  Disappointment at first but just second time that I have seen this variant .

John Drummond
Colorado Springs .

[Glenn and Laurie]

I photographed a white-winged, Red Crossbill last year in Clear Creek County.  Thanks John for reminding us that some 1st year Red Crossbills can indeed have white wing-bars.

 

Glenn Walbek

Castle Rock, CO

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[David Suddjian]

I also had a male Red Crossbill (Type 2) showing narrow white wingbars along Meadow Road in Park earlier this month. That is between Pine Junction and Bailey. It was the only such that I recall seeing. On that Red individual the wingbars were less bold than on the White-winged, in my limited experience with the latter.

David Suddjian

Littleton, CO

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[DAVID A LEATHERMAN]

David, John, Glenn, and All,
This is a nice thread about a subject I don't recall ever coming up on COBIRDS.  I was with Janeal and Jane today at Denver West trying for the Pine Warbler (which we did NOT find, despite finding the bushtits, the juncos, the nuthatches, the chickadees, and many other birds).  What a neat place.  One of the major attractions for birds in the Scots Pines, which are the predominate species of pine that I saw, is Pine Tortoise Scale.  Some of the pines are heavily infested (the scales are reddish purple lumps on the small twigs within 4-5 inches of the branch ends).  This is a chronic pest of pines that I suspect has been part of the attraction for winter warblers and other small gleaners to that business park's landscaping for decades.  Whomever has the contract to care for the grounds is getting some free assistance from several species of birds including the ones mentioned above, plus Cedar Waxwings. 

But back to the subject, we also found a small flock of Red Crossbills.  This appeared to be a mixed flock that I think included a 2, mostly 5s, and I am pretty sure a few 4s.  Janeal got a pic of a big-billed male (probably a 5) with thin, white wingbars.

David mentions the relative prominence of the wing-bars as being a helpful separation between aberrant Red and White-winged.  I am pretty sure the shade of red should be helpful, also, with Reds being darker and more brick hues, with the White-winged being distinctly pink.

And I must concur with Brandon and Duane who have indicated recently they sure hope people are not forgetting about posting to COBIRDS because of eBird.  Both have their strengths, with discussions like the White-winged Red Crossbills being one of the advantages of a discussion, sharing group like COBIRDS.

One more thing:
Ragarding my post about bad behavior at the Larimer Woodcock situation, the feedback I got was all positive.  Based on the number of questionable birder behaviors being quite low, I was maybe a bit over the top, who knows?  But there are right ways to do our passion and wrong ways.  If whatever we choose to do passes the "did it hurt the bird, the habitat, the neighbors, or other birders?" test, it's probably OK.  That's all I meant to say.  Fawn Simonds the finder of the bird did everything right and nothing wrong.  Austin Hess, one of Fawn's friends whom she called to tell of her super-exciting find, did nothing wrong by posting this bird to COBIRDS.  99% of the people who have gone to see this bird have done our sport proud.  The bird seems oblivious or at least OK with all the attention it is getting.  It has its limits and flushes when pushed, like any living creature would.  But it keeps coming back, apparently because of something (annelid worms, most likely) it is getting from under heavy leaf litter at the interface between the spring-fed stream and nearby frozen soil.  I have asked the local Ranger Carl (who has been very accommodating and helpful to all birders) for permission to sample this soil/leaf litter after the bird leaves, to see if we can figure out what it has been probing for with that awesome bill.  What a creature, perfectly adapted to its microhabitat. 

Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins

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Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 20:52:21 -0700
Subject: Re: [cobirds] White-winged Red Crossbill , Park County
From: dsud...@gmail.com
To: cob...@googlegroups.com

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAGj6RorpmNHKB8cuJ-dQGHvJGCULMVNgjhH-6QWuB6hf6OQEnQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[John D]

CO Birders :

    After more carefully listening to Type 2 , 4 and 5 call recordings the Red Crossbill that we saw with faint white wing bars was a Type 5 not Type 4 .

John Drummond
Colorado Springs .