Red Crossbill

A bill made for unlocking pine cones

Look closely at a Red Crossbill and you see that the tips of its bill cross over each other. It is the ideal tool for levering open the scales of a cone and lifting out the seed.

Males are brick red, females greenish. They move through conifer woods in small, noisy flocks, going wherever the cones are plentiful, and when there is enough food they can nest as early as late winter.