The last few weeks has seen a decent influx of Red Crossbills into the area. The numbers started showing up at the end of the third week of June and has continued to build through the early part of July. I have had them flying over at many locations but have managed to get just a few recordings that were good enough to determine Type and all of those have been Type 12 (a newly described Type known also as Northeastern Red Crossbill). I also recorded what might have been a Type 1 but the recording was not good enough to be certain. The White Pines in the area are just loaded with cones and that appears to be what has attracted the recent influx. Until today I have not had a decent look at any of them with mainly calling flyovers. I heard a few at the house and after a bit of looking I finally found a few at the top of some pines and got some fantastic scope views and managed to get some digiscoped photos and video. The calls I captured today were again quite distant and might not be good enough to determine Type but Tim is on the case and if anyone can tease out details it would be Tim. Link to the eBird list with more photos, a couple videos and some distant recordings here.
I would highly encourage anyone who hears any Red Crossbills to get recordings of them so the exact Type can be determined. This will help in the research of this unique, complex species that may actually be many different species. More details on the various types can be found at the following links: Finch Research Network and Crossbills of North America.
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