Length -- 6 to 7 inches. About the size of the English sparrow.
Male -- General color Indian red, passing into brownish gray,
with red tinge beneath. Wings (without bands), also tail,
brown, Beak crossed at the tip.
Female -- General color greenish yellow, with brownish tints.
Dull-yellowish tints on head, throat, breast, and underneath.
Wings and tail pale brown. Beak crossed at tip.
Range -- Pennsylvania to northern British America. West of
Mississippi, range more southerly.
Migrations -- Irregular winter visitor. November. Sometimes
resident until April.
It is a rash statement to say that a bird is rare simply because you have
never seen it in your neighborhood, for while you are going out of the front
door your rara avis may be eating the crumbs about your kitchen. Even with our
eyes and ears constantly alert for some fresh bird excitement, our phlegmatic
neighbor over the way may be enjoying a visit from a whole flock of the very
bird we have been looking and listening for in vain all the year. The red
crossbills are capricious little visitors, it is true, but by no means
uncommon.
About the size of an English sparrow, of a brick or Indian red color, for the
most part, the peculiarity of its parrot-like beak is its certain mark of
identification.
Longfellow has rendered into verse the German legend of the crossbill, which
tells that as the Saviour hung upon the cross, a little bird tried to pull out
the nails that pierced His hands and feet, thus twisting its beak and staining
its feathers with the blood.
At first glance the birds would seem to be hampered by their crossed beaks in
getting at the seeds in the pine cones -- a superficial criticism when the
thoroughness and admirable dexterity of their work are better understood.
Various seeds of fruits, berries, and the buds of trees enlarge their bill of
fare. They are said to be inordinately fond of salt. Mr. Romeyn B. Hough tells
of a certain old ice-cream freezer that attracted flocks of crossbills one
winter, as a salt-lick attracts deer. Whether the traditional salt that may
have stuck to the bird's tail is responsible for its tameness is not related,
but it is certain the crossbills, like most bird visitors from the far north,
are remarkably gentle, friendly little birds. As they swing about the pine
trees, parrot-fashion, with the help of their bill, calling out kimp, kimp,
that sounds like the snapping of the pine cones on a sunny day, it often seems
easily possible to catch them with the hand.
There is another species of crossbill, called the White-winged (Loxia
leucoptera), that differs from the preceding chiefly in having two white bands
across its wings and in being more rare.