Crossbill (Common Crossbill)
Loxia curvirostra
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Distribution Britain 763 (=153%) Ireland 156 (=5100%)
Numbers breeding: Britain 10,000 ~ Ireland 1,000 ~ European status: 1,200,000 (0% in Britain and Ireland) British population trend: wildly fluctuating but prospects good How likely are you to record it? 110 squares (2.4%) Ranked 101 [101=] |
The crossbills are a group of species whose fortunes follow the cropping of their food trees: the conifers. Their numbers and breeding areas change grossly from year to year and the three species we have in Britain and Ireland are difficult to tell apart. This one is the commonest and may breed almost anywhere after an irruption, when flocks reach us from the Continent, but they do need mature conifers! This means that there were far fewer breeding, even after irruptions, 100 years ago. Then Caledonian forest and some early conifer plantations in Scotland and the first Breckland plantations may have had regular populations. It seems likely that several areas in Ireland had breeding birds for many years following irruptions in the 1860s. Irish records diminished, even following irruptions, and there were no breeding records in the first Breeding Atlas (present in three 10-km squares) — but there were records from 156 squares in the second following big irruptions. Now there are many more mature conifers and Britain had records from many areas for the first Breeding Atlas and far more for the second. Britain and Ireland have many more mature conifers now than at any other time and are bound to be a good reception area for wanderers from the Continent.
From
The
State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead