page_title: Red crossbill
section_title: Taxonomy and systematics
hierarchical_section_title: Red crossbill / Taxonomy and systematics
caption_attribution_description: English: Red Crossbill Bhutan November from 2018
context_page_description: The red crossbill is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae, also known as the common crossbill in Eurosiberia. 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 colour, beak size and shape, and call types, leading to different classifications of variants, some of which have been named as subspecies.
context_section_description: The genus name  Loxia is from Ancient Greek loxos, "crosswise", and curvirostra is Latin for "curved bill".
  This species is difficult to separate from the parrot crossbill and Scottish crossbill, both of which breed within its Eurasian range, as plumage distinctions from those two species are negligible, though the head and bill are smaller than in either of the other species. Care is needed in identification, especially in Eurasia, where the glip or chup call is probably the best indicator. The identification problem is less severe in North America, where only the red crossbill and white-winged crossbill occur. However, there has been debate as to whether different call types should be considered separate species.  For example, the Cassia crossbill, occurring in the South Hills and Albion Mountains in Idaho, has been described as a new species (Loxia sinesciuris) because it shows a very low degree of hybridization with the red crossbill. There are also genetic differences between the call type populations. Nevertheless, few ornithologists have chosen to give these forms species status.
  
  Some large-billed, pine-feeding populations currently assigned to this species in the Mediterranean area may possibly be better referred to either the parrot crossbill or to new species in their own right, but more research is needed. These include the Balearic crossbill (L. c. balearica) and the North African crossbill (L. c. poliogyna), feeding primarily on Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis); the Cyprus crossbill (L. c. guillemardi), feeding primarily on European black pine (Pinus nigra); and an as-yet unidentified crossbill with a parrot crossbill-sized bill feeding primarily on Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) in the Balkans. These populations also differ on plumage, with the Balearic, North African and Cyprus subspecies having yellower males, and the Balkan type having deep purple-pink males; this, however, merely reflects the differing anthocyanin content of the cones they feed on, as these pigments are transferred to the feathers.
caption: From Bhutan (L. c. himalayensis)
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1368", "Image ImageLength": "2432", "Image BitsPerSample": "[16, 16, 16]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 80D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2019:08:15 13:24:35", "Image Artist": "Dibyendu Ash", "Image Copyright": "Dibyendu Ash \nwww.goingwild.in", "Image ExifOffset": "380", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1212", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1326", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5973", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:11:22 10:53:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:11:22 10:53:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "9", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "400", "EXIF SubSecTime": "76", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "76", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "76", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "848", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1508", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "308024000351", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[400, 400, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF400mm f/5.6L USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000"}