Appearance:

Small and neat finch with red forehead patch, black bib and base of bill, yellow bill with dark tip and buff wing-bars. Male with pinkish or red chest. Rump streaked, and under tail-coverts with dark centre (as opposed to Arctic Redpoll). Base colour of plumage varies between different subspecies from warm brown to greyish. S.sp. cabaret (often treated as an own species: Lesser Redpoll) has brownish plumage tones, and is smaller than flammea (Common Redpoll). Juveniles lacks red forehead, has less contrasting head markings and more prominent streaking than adults. Underparts with darker streaking, and lores and chin darker than juvenile Linnet and Twite. Dancing flight, with deeper undulations than Linnet.

Sound:

Contact call diagnostic. A chattering "Chutt-utt-utt", with a more metallic and nasal timbre than Linnet and Twite. Other sound includes plaintive call mostly given when perched. Uttered as a continuous sound, but with a disyllabic feel. First part ascending slowly, then faster before it is cut off "tsooeet". Song an improvised chattering on various contact calls with no apparent phrasing.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

Very similar to Parrot Crossbill, but has thinner neck, smaller head, steeper forehead and slender bill. Upper mandible is less curved towards the tip than in Parrot Crossbill, and the lower is straight, with no bulge. The tip of the lower mandible protrudes from behind the upper (tips of mandibles visibly crossing). The chest is less deep, and birds are not so front heavy. Large individuals may be difficult to identify because of overlapping characters with Parrot Crossbill. Plumage similar to Parrot, with dark wings and tail. Males with rufous red head and body, females green. Juveniles greyish green with streaking. Posture more erect than Parrot Crossbill, especially when foraging on ground.

Sound:

Contact call similar to Parroy Crossbill's "tupp", but is on average higher and less powerful, with a "cut-off" ending. In sum: Parrot Crossbill; hard attack, soft ending, Crossbill: softer attack, cut-off ending. Beware regional variations and overlap in pitch of calls with Parrot. The song consist of improvised, resonant twittering, and series of contact calls with no apparent phrases. It is generally faster, with less marked pauses than in Parrot Crossbill, and the phrasing seems more random.

Contact call and song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Piotr Szczypinski, Licence,Link.