New Found Crossbill ? (updated)

One to engage with trans-Atlantic Loxia Fantastica readers 'over the pond'. Raking through the 50 plus gigs of crossbill recording that I have I came across some interesting ones sent to me by Lester Rees from Newfoundland. A few years ago at the end of the summer months Lester was getting Red Crossbills visiting his garden feeders ( feeeding on sunflowers !) and this occurence happened over several years. Unfortunately the correspondence I had with Lester was 3 computers ago and though it is backed up somewhere, I can't put my hands on it. The gist was that Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) sent Dr.William Montevecchi (a dean at MUN) and Dave Fifield (from MUN) do a sound recording and banding. The recordings were sent to me by Lester in 2006 (I think) - the recordings were possibly made in 2005 ? The initial thought (hope) was that these Red Crossbills might be putative Type 8's the subspecies percna, or New Foundland Red Crossbill which is presumed extinct, hence the excitement of the academics. Some of Lester's pictures of the birds can be seen HERE. Unfortunately there seems to have been little funding to take the science much further and it is in limbo as so often happens.

I produced some sonagrams from the audio and the results were interesting. First up a flight call ( apologies for compressed sonagrams - the files very small and I have scaled them to match others on this blog for comparison. If you click on them they should enlarge):



This looks very much like the Fc's for Magnus' "keep" ( "Wandering") Common Crossbill call, but it sounds a bit 'lispy' or flutely and dare I say sounds like some types I record regularly in Deeside ( though these "look" different on the 'gram). If anyone can let me know how I can upload audio directly on to here please say and I will do it.

Another Newfoundland one:


The one above is similar to Fc2 'over here' in UK, but with features more consistent with Fc1 ( or "British" for Sound Approach readers).
One more flight call from Witbourne, Newfoundland:



Again, very much like the second example. However, this one gives food for thought:


To me this sounded like a toop ( an excitement call): it is lower in frequency than the corresponding flight calls ( as toops are) and has a more "clucky" quality that toops tend to have. Unfortunately the sound clips are small and it is difficult to evaluate the context of the calls to gain a bit more insight. I would still say this one sounds like an excitement call, though I reserve the right to be mistaken here given the brevity of the clip. However, it does seem to closely match the Fc for Type 4 as shown on page 37 of Groth's monograph. Type 4 flight call can be heard HERE. The example Lester sent me, the putative excitement call, sounds nothing like Groth's Fc4, and whilst the bird was in flight ( you can hear the wingbeats on the recording), it is not uncommon for crossbills to elicit excitement calls when flying. The flight calls Lester sent on do not match those for Type 4 either, but equally they do not match the one recording of a putative percna from 1981. If anything they are similar to Type 3. Mixed flocks of types would not be uncommon - certainly they are not over here in the UK. I am no North American Loxia expert but I would imagine Type 3 and 4 are most likely cadidates geographically as they can range from Alaska and British Columbia on the Pacific Northwest right across to Maine and Canada on the Atlantic coast. The fact that they were occuring at the end of the summer suggests a northerly population moving South (and East ?) and that they were feeding on sunflower suggests behaviour of migrating crossbills eg. that they were possibly locally starving with their natural food source depleted - a bit like watching Crossbills feeding on thrift in Shetland ! The fact that Lester photographed some steaked juvenile birds also suggests that this was a post breeding movement. Lester's crossbills may have crossed a considerable landmass to reach Newfoundland ( and the natural barrier of the North Atlantic), or they could have irrupted more 'locally' from nearby Quebec or the Newfoudland mainland. I would imagine there are exciting opportunities to study crossbill movements using stable isotopes given the vast landmass of the USA and Canada.

So if my hunch is correct what Lester had was Type 3 flight calls and what appears to be a different excitement call from those previously described. If I am wrong then the excitement call is indeed a Type 4 flight call variant ( which I don't have access to to verify or compare, that's my excuse anyway). Groth's sonagrams are also displayed in "wide-band" which makes the features more 'blurry' and with a different scale than mine. But what about the fact that for percna there only exists a series of recordings of an individual bird made in 1981 ? Was this a true percna ? Do these crossbills Lester gets every Summer stay on and breed locally in Newfoundland ? Where do they originate from ? Could they be percna ? Is anyone follwing up this rather intriguing case ? If someone can put me up over there I could just about be tempted over to help out - cheap flight to New York and drive up the coast. If only I could get my crossbills over here onto Sunflower seeds, I might just run out of rings ! It would be like catching blue tits on peanut feeders E-A-S-Y ! My first recommendation would be to take feather samples for stable isotope analysis from caught birds and to compare this with historic mueseum specimens from the same region of the USA and Canada.
And just as a final thought prompted from an as always stimulating exchange of emails with Magnus Robb where he referred to the "up till now taboo subject of the potential for New World Crossbills reaching the UK and Europe". Get out with your Telingas folks - more is waiting to be discovered and it might just be you.............

Maybe some for our cross the pond cousins would like to share their thoughts on this ?

Alive And Kicking !

Merry Christmas everyone !

Jeezo things have been hectic lately ! Normal service will be resumed again on Loxia Fantastica I promise. My time has been spread (too thinly possibly) between many things lately, some of them unrewarding it has to be said, some hopefully not so. Please also remember like most people I do actually have a job, which I love, and that (sadly) it is not a full time researchers post for RSPB studying Crossbills (as some people have wrongly thought in the past !). I am, at the moment, drenched in sonagrams - the weather is just too crappy for serious crossbilling, though hope to get out later in the week. I also have a new 'toy' to play with from Santa.

A couple of weeks ago I was down on Rainbow Warrior before it set off to Oslo and then to Copenhagen, sadly not with me on it ( edit: some avid readers of Loxia Fantastica may be interested to know that in a previous 'life' I was in fact a Marine Scientist SO Grade working at the Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen. I would do a few months at sea every year on research vessels. My paricular field of speciality was larval fish and micro and macro zooplankton. A long way from Crossbills !). Please sign up to the various campaigns that Greenpeace are undertaking, especially register your dismay at the failure of the UN to agree on legally binding emission controls, even though for once the UK government seemed proactive during and after the summit. A particular disgrace is how several Greenpeace campaigners have been banged up in a Danish prison, possibly in solitary, until Jan 7th for a peaceful and dignified protest - they 'gatecrashed' a state dinner and held up banners. Wow, if that is what happens for a mild "breach of the peace" in Denmark ( and I use the term "breach of the peace" loosely as it seemed a dignified silent and peaceful protest to me) then what would happen for something more serious like your dog crapping on the pavement ? I think the Danes had egg on their face that their security at a State function with many world leaders attending was so pathetic. Actually, make that non existant.

Highlight of my birding journal recently was a collybita Chiffchaff in my garden in first week of December. My previous latest record was 22nd Nov in 2005........er, not that I keep lists like. I guess the climate is warming after all then....

"Read All About It ?"

On Saturday my copy of "Birdwatch" was delivered through my letter-box. Don't ask me why but I always turn to the second last page to see what next month's issue will feature. And behold, staff writer David Callahan is apparently going to be writing a piece on the current state of Loxia:

"Got Your Bills in A Cross? Debate continues as to the true number of crossbill species in Britain, Europe and beyond. David Callahan assesses the current state of the taxonomy and what is yet to come". (Birdwatch, Issue 210, p.69)

Now, clearly I will be interested to read this, as I am sure some of you will, but what exactly can this article say, and, is there really any 'debate' concerning this subject other than on Bird Forum ? Okay, Birdlife lost the plot on Scotbill a few weeks ago.....until the RSPB reminded them of the script. Nothing against Mr. Callahan, who is a good writer, but as a rule I am generally a bit wary of journalists - remember that embarrassing Glasgow Herald article on Scotbill that their 'Environmental Correspondent" wrote ? Sure there are those Scully types that don't believe in Scottish Crossbill as the evidence is flimsy, but us Mulder types continue to observe, sound record and sometimes even catch them. The Scully types are often serious listers, who in many cases rather than buy a sound recorder and microphone to ID crossbills, choose to deny its existence as they can't see any differences and instead blow their money on plane fares to Fair Isle to see a small brown bird that shouldn't be there. The BOU seem to believe in Scottish Crossbill as a species so surely that should be that, shouldn't it ? In Britain we have 3 breeding species - Common, Parrot and Scottish. Two-Barred can occur as rare migrant. So that is the current state of the taxonomy in the UK as I see it: not a pretty sight but it is what it is.

What is still to come regarding the future of Loxia taxonomy ? In UK at least how about this as a guess:

1) Further work on classification and understanding of crossbill vocalisations, with reference to speciation and irruptive populations. More 'new' calls will be discovered (and fact, already have been. One of my main areas of focus). Possible lab based studies on song and call learning (not my thing ethically).

2) More 'refined' genetics esp. for Loxia scotica, but also the others ( Not my field, but I would gladly participate in this).

3) More Stable Isotope analysis of Common Crossbill populations especially given the current irruption ( Not my area, though I have offered to gather samples).

4) Further work on biometric and taxonomic classification of Crossbill species. (I am interested in long term studies of biometric stability of a dormant crossbill population in relation to sporadic influxes from the continent. Other workers doing their own thing with bios also.)

5) Ecological studies on feeding efficiency and 'fitness' to environment ala Benkman - possibly a PhD project ? (I am doing this with field observed wild birds). Possibly supplemented in the lab using captive birds (again, not really my thing).

My participation is only small though hopefully will make a contribution. I have already got a new call here in Scotland. My project has recently suffered some major set backs though.

In USA, well I can't keep track with the number of Red Crossbill 'species' there - I reckon there will be more though......they, so far, are hands down the cutting edge in all things crossbill ( like in so many things !). I reckon they'll possibly discover a crossbill on Mars......or send a crossbill to Mars.....or a crossbill will win X Factor. Something like that.

In Europe, more could be done on the boreal 'natal' grounds of Common and Parrot Crossbills - calls, biometrics, genetics, anything ! So if anyone in Russia fancies taking up the baton, or more precisely the Telinga ? ! I am sure the Med races will be given the same 'treatment' as our own beloved scotica, and some may reach full species status (if any ornithogical body can be bothered approving it).

Roll on next copy of Birdwatch, a fine journal for the discerning 21st Century orni-enthusiast.




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Crossbill Taxonomy in Action ?

Never Forgotten

On holiday in July this year I visited the Commando Memorial near to Spean Bridge and their historic training base at Achnacarry. It was an incredibly moving experience, being there at dusk and with the memorial set in a panaromic landscape in the shadow of the imposing Aonach Mor. Nearby there was a small personal memorial garden with tributes to fallen Royal Marine Commandos from World War II through to the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. It was a poignant reminder back in July as to just how many of these and other brilliant soldiers we have lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of course since then the losses have increased considerably. One is too many. Incredibly brave and determined soldiers from all regiments are learning to overcome and deal with horrific life changing injuries they have received and their resolve never ceases to amaze and inspire me. They too should not be forgotten.



Being an Arbroath boy the troops of 45 Commando based at Arbroath Condor were in my thoughts as they sustained bad loses in Afghanistan last year before returning from their tour of duty. I have fond memories of a fantastic day at the base open day as a young lad when the Marines inspired me to achieve the fastest time on the assault course.



I did not buy a poppy this year, not having had the opportunity. Instead, I write this in memory and tribute to the fallen and injured in all past and present campaigns, as well as those killed or injured in peace time duties.



If you are reading this and wonder why it is on Loxia Fantastica then let me offer this: whilst standing at the Memorial in July a group of Common Crossbills were calling from a small spruce plantation nearby. However, that didn't seem important at the time and nor does it now.

Those That Can, Do, Those That Can't Blog ?

I am tired of reading statements like "time spent blogging is time not spent birding or ringing" or "people spending more time in front of computer screens than birding/ringing". I sit and write this at 1am in the morning watching "Generation Kill". My crossbills have been roosting since 2.30pm. As to ringing, unless I am out dazzling Woodcock or roosting Dippers, forget it. For the record I spent all day on Monday birding and ringing. I can work, bird, ring and blog - I don't have to do them all at the same time, I am a multi tasker. I can even watch TV at the same time. The said same people that come out with this sort of nonsense probably get bladdered every Friday and Saturday night, which I do not criticise, though perhaps they should practise what they preach and stay home scrutinising their ID books or entering their data into IPMR.