Summary

  • Natural history: Red Crossbills are split into roughly ten distinct ‘call types,’ each with a subtly different bill shape adapted to prize seeds from a particular conifer species, and some ornithologists suspect these types may actually be separate species in the process of forming, since birds overwhelmingly seek out mates of their own call type. The species wanders erratically in search of good cone crops rather than keeping to a fixed range, and it took until the very last year of Vermont’s Second Atlas, 2007, for surveyors to find the state’s first confirmed nest, a family of fledglings begging for food at Victory Bog.
  • Status in VT: No change. Gain of 1 block in Northern Vermont Piedmont and loss of 1 block in Southern Green Mountains.
  • Data from other research: No additional data for VT.
  • Conservation status: State rank S1B; S2N
  • Other atlases: NY: -64%; ON: no change
  • VT’s role in North American range: VT is on the southern edge of the range.
  • Causes of change since first Atlas: Minimal change.
  • Management/Monitoring recommendations: Irruptive species with core of range outside of VT. No specific recommendations.

First Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (1976-1981)

Species Account

Second Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (2003 – 2007)

Species Account

Red Crossbill Map 1Red Crossbill Table 1Red Crossbill Table 2

Change in Distribution

mapkeyRed Crossbill Map 2Red Crossbill Table 3

Links

Vermont eBird

Encyclopedia of Life

All About Birds