Appearance:

Plumage like other crossbills; male red, female and juveniles green. Both sexes and all ages with two broad, white wing-bars, which distinguishes it from congeners. Nonetheless, the species is easily overlooked when in mixed flocks with other crossbills. Build slightly more slender and long-tailed than other crossbills. Often discovered through its contact call.

Sound:

Contact call a "chep chep" similar to crossbill but softer, interspersed with characteristic, toy-trumpet call with redpoll-like timbre, but with a more flat intonation. Song more like redpoll than a crossbill, with rattling and chittering notes.

Calls:

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

Sounds: Recorded by Patrick Åberg,http://www.xeno-canto.org/ ,CC license

Appearance:

Male with brown back, pinkish white underparts and a bluish grey head with a black eye mask. Female more dull with barred underparts. Juvenile like female, but upperparts also barred . Tail brown with white edges in all plumages. Females and juveniles easily confused with other southern/eastern or vagrant shrikes like; Brown Shrike, Isabelline Shrike, Woodchat Shrike and Turkestan Shrike. Differs from those in white sides of tail, barred rump, mantle and scapulars, scaly underparts and dark or yellowish base of bill (not pink).

Sound:

Call a hard "check check" (like striking two rocks together), and a variable nasal "twee" Song surprisingly varied with many expert imitations of small passerines, interwoven with bell-like ringing and dry chirping sounds. May be confusing and hard to identify if bird not seen. Song not very loud, but phrases can be very long.

Alarm call, 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