[Maine-birds] Red crossbills-briefly-Sanford

I'm going out on a limb, after my careless  error of the oystercatcher ID post on the 8th.

About 7 birds that I am quite sure were Red Crossbills, flew onto my back "stoop" on Wedndesday, April 10.  

At first glance they jizzed like House Finches... sort of orangey red. But I could see the tops of their heads and their breasts as I looked down on the first ones... not House Finch. Then there were yellowish ones and one brown one right out in front of me. They looked about robin sized, but not shaped. The red ones were overall dark. After trying to see the bill, I finally saw a small bill that was "hooked"... on all of them. No white on the wings.  What other marks or features should I be cognizant of? I couldn't see that the mandibles were crossed, but that is hard to distinguish. (They flew before I could attempt a photo through my back door window and screen.) 

So, I looked in Sibley for crossbill . They were exactly like the Red Crossbills in his book; different colors, dark red-orange, some yellow, one brown.  So wish I had a photo. I watched them for about 4-5 minutes, at first surprised I didn't know what they were, about 3 feet from me. They didn't come back. I don't have an actual feeder up now, as I don't want to attract the bear I had last June, But I had scattered seed on a shelf on the back "stoop" and ground for the chickadees.   They were flighty, so it was hard to count, but I was more focused on getting field marks/ID. 

I have seen them before in NYS eating on the ground near woods at the edge of the Adirondacks. My house here is in mixed conifer/ hardwood  woods. I have also seen White-winged Crossbills back home (north of Syracuse).

I found Red Crossbill on eBird, which I am mostly unfamiliar with. (But my updated bird data program seems to have capability for in-puting to eBird.) It seemed the locations were NYS and northern Maine. Comments welcome. I hope I haven't goofed again! I don't remember their being posted.

Barbara

4/11/123

p.s. Saw bluebirds at Laudhom Farm in Wells today, as well as the "resident" mocker. No apparent Osprey on or near the nest at Drakes Island in Wells yet.

~~~

Barbara Partridge Herrgesell
Sanford, ME

herpartb@aol.com

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