Crossbills

It is almost traditional to see crossbills at Christmas in Southey Woods, so the fact that a flock of five birds was feeding yesterday in the pines around the old picnic area there, was almost no surprise.

This year has been a busy one for crossbills, with several summer sightings in the area and young birds being seen, proving that this normally northern bird, has bred successfully in the area.

The male is a beautiful crimson bird, the female a more drab green, but both have enormous bills that cross at that end, giving them the leverage to prize open their main food source - pine cones.