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The two-barred crossbill or white-winged crossbill (''Loxia leucoptera'') is a small
passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...
bird in the
finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where the ...
family
Fringillidae The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where the ...
. It breeds in the
conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
ous forests of North America and the
Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...
.


Taxonomy

The two-barred crossbill was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist
Johann Friedrich Gmelin Johann Friedrich Gmelin (8 August 1748 – 1 November 1804) was a German natural history, naturalist, chemist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist. Education Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp F ...
in his revised and expanded edition of
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
's ''
Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...
''. He placed it with the crossbills in the
genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
'' Loxia'' and coined the
binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...
''Loxia leucoptera''. Gmelin specified the locality as
Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...
and New York. The specific epithet ''leucoptera'' is from
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
''leukopteros'' meaning "white-winged" (''leukos'' means "white" and ''pteron'' means "wing"). Gmelin based his account on the "white winged crossbill" that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. Latham had examined a specimen in the Leverian Museum in London. Two
subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
are recognised: * ''L. l. bifasciata'' ( Brehm, CL, 1827) – north Europe to east Siberia and northeast China * ''L. l. leucoptera'' Gmelin, JF, 1789 – Alaska, Canada and north USA


Description

The two-barred crossbill is in length and weighs . It has short legs, a forked tail, a crossed bill and two prominent white wing-bars. The male of the
nominate subspecies In biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. ...
has forehead, crown, nape and upper-parts bright raspberry-red. The are black or blackish brown with pink edges. The upper tail coverts are black with white fringes. The female lacks the pink and instead has greenish-yellow head and upperparts. The two-barred is easier to identify than other crossbills, especially in North America, where only the red crossbill (''Loxia curvirostra'') and this species occur. Within its
Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...
range, this species is smaller-headed and smaller-billed than the parrot crossbill and Scottish crossbill, so the main confusion between species both there and in North America is with the red or common crossbill. The main plumage distinction from the red crossbill is the white wingbars which give this species its English and scientific names. There are also white tips to the tertials. The adult male is also a somewhat brighter (pinker) red than other male crossbills. Some red crossbills occasionally show weak white wingbars, so care is needed with the correct identification of this species. The ''chip'' call is weaker and higher than that of the red crossbill. Another crossbill species on
Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...
in the
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
was previously treated as a subspecies (''Loxia leucoptera megaplaga''), but is now treated as a distinct species: the Hispaniolan crossbill (''Loxia megaplaga''). It is associated with the Hispaniolan pine tree (''Pinus occidentalis''), and differs from the two-barred crossbill in darker plumage, a stouter bill, and its geographic isolation compared to other crossbill species.


Distribution and habitat

This bird breeds in the
conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
ous forests of
Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
, Canada, the northernmost United States and across the
Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...
extending into northeast
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. It nests in conifers, laying 3–5 eggs. This crossbill is mainly resident, but will irregularly irrupt south if its food source fails. The American race seems to wander more frequently than the Eurosiberian subspecies. This species will form flocks outside the breeding season, often mixed with other crossbills. It is a rare visitor to western Europe, usually arriving with an irruption of red crossbills.


Behaviour


Food and feeding

They are specialist feeders on
conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
cones, and the unusual bill shape is an adaptation to assist the extraction of the seeds from the cone. The two-barred crossbill has a strong preference for
larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...
(''Larix''), in Eurosiberia using Siberian larch (''Larix sibirica'') and Dahurian larch (''L. gmelinii''), and in North America Tamarack larch (''L. laricina''). It will also take
rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...
(''Sorbus'') berries, and in North America, also eastern hemlock (''Tsuga canadensis'') and
white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * '' Picea engelmannii'', native to the Rocky Mountains and Cascade Mountains of the United States and Canada * ''Picea glauca ''Picea glauca'', the whi ...
(''Picea glauca'') cones.


Breeding

The nest is placed above the ground, usually against the trunk of a conifer. The nest is built by the female and mainly consists of conifer twigs. The clutch of 3–4 eggs is incubated by the female for 14–15 days. The chicks are fed by both parents. They fledge after 22–24 days but then remain with their parents for up to 6 weeks.


References


External links


Cyberbirding: Two-barred Crossbill pictures
* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q331190 two-barred crossbill Holarctic birds two-barred crossbill two-barred crossbill