Whilst working down in Leicestershire last week I got the opportunity to shoot-up to Budby Common, in Nottinghamshire, to have a look at the Parrot Crossbills. For once luck was on my side: no sooner had I got to the area where the crossbills had been frequenting, when there they were. Over the next 3/4 hour the flock of 14 crossbills showed very well to all present, perched in two separate deciduous trees and dropping down to drink at several puddles. Despite the insistence of the usual loud-mouthed, self-proclaimed expert (idiot), that several of the flock were "obviously Common Crossbills", that "you can't separate these birds from 'Scotbill'" and "it just makes a mockery of it all really", I thought that all 14 birds in the flock looked good for Parrot Crossbill.
I see a lot of Common Crossbills when out birding locally, and all 14 of the Budby birds were obviously different to Common Crossbill: larger headed with a bull-necked structure; big, deep bills; obviously deeper and bulging lower mandibles; sharply decurved mandibles towards the tip; and deeper and less metallic calls. As for the Scottish Crossbill issue. I'll worry about separating Common, Scottish and Parrot Crossbills when I'm in Speyside, but not when I'm in Nottinghamshire!
I even managed to (fuzzy) digiscope some of the birds, but alas I couldn't get my remembird to work properly, and thus failed to record any of them.
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| Parrot Crossbill (male). Budby Common (Notts). 13 December 2013. |
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| Parrot Crossbill (male). Budby Common (Notts). 13 December 2013. |
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