American Cross-bills

Title: American Cross-bills
LC Subject: Birds
Description: The Cross-bill belongs to the Finch family. It lives in the very high mountains. Only occasionally, during the fall and winter migrations, do we see it in the lower parts of the valley. Here in Eugene, which is practically at sea level, it sometimes appears during the early winter about the outskirts of town among the fir trees, or even around the farm buildings. The Cross-bill has many of the characteristics of the Purple Finch. The male is more or less reddish; the female is a greenish gold. Peculiarly characteristic is the fact that the lower and the upper bill do not meet as they do in ordinary birds, but cross each other, much like pruning shears. Its diet consists largely of seeds of pine cones, to the extracting of which this sort of bill is well-adapted. When feeding the bird gives out a sort of intermittent cry, sometimes called a titter; when in flight it emits a short clear whistle. A flock composed entirely of Cross-bills will make considerable noise as they fly by. It has no regular nesting time, but seems to nest whenever the whim takes it — sometimes in January or February, and sometimes as late as July. The communal instinct is very well developed among them. They live in large flocks. Occasionally, however, a few will leave the flock to take care of their nestlings.
Work Type: lantern slides
Location: Oregon >> United States
Date: 1900/1910
Identifier: P217:02:57
Rights: No Copyright - United States
Local Collection Name: Visual Instruction Department Lantern Slides, 1900-1940 (P 217)
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Set: OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center
Primary Set: OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center
Is Part Of: Set 3 - Oregon Birds
Institution: Oregon State University
Note: Hand-tinted