10/12/2026
“Pine Nuts With A Side Of Dirt” from Jack Peneston's camera.
Yesterday I took a 2 Hour drive down to Wanakena, New York to take part in an annual northern New York Audubon event that this year is being held at the SUNY ESF Ranger School. I got to observe a banding station and went on a short bird walk before listening to a seminar by one of the graduate students who is doing field work in a couple different projects that were based out of the campus. They were focused on Tree Swallows and White Throated Sparrows. The highlight of the day had to have been being able to observe several small flocks of Red Crossbills who chose a small patch of dirt near the sidewalk entry as their gritting area.
Red Crossbills have been one of my favorite birds ever since I saw my first one years ago, due to both their unique adaptations and their biology. They are widespread breeders throughout the Adirondacks, and they are one of the few birds that are not dictated by the season as to when they will or will not breed. They are entirely driven by the availability of cone crops in a given area to determine when they breed and rear chicks. They can breed more than once during a given season, typically during the late summer and early fall, and then again in the late winter and early spring, although if the availability of food isn’t what they desire, they can choose to not breed at all. They are also semi-nomadic, although they are year round residents here. They are also irruptive at times and birds from outside of our region will move in when food is abundant here. There are multiple different subspecies of Red Crossbills across the US, however the most abundant and common type that we have here in the Adirondacks is the Type 12 Red Crossbill. It can be distinguished from other subspecies by both a difference in call notes and also a slight but noticeable difference in bill size, as well. Type 12s are more generalists when it comes to preferred food, due to their beak morphology. The beak is thinner but still thick enough, which allows them to monopolize a wider variety of conifers, as opposed to some of the more specialist subspecies of Crossbills found further west. Most of their diet can be dictated by the food available earlier in the summer. They prefer to target spruce trees, like Red Spruce and White Spruce, which have softer cones that are easier for them to break into. As the cones start to harden, they will rotate to more White Pines in the Autumn, and then they tend to focus more on Red Pines, Jack Pines, and Pitch Pines.
A unique adaptation that helps them to be very efficient when feeding is their prehensile tongue. If you look closely at the pictures, you’ll see the tongue also has barbs which help them remove the seeds once they pry open the scales of the cone with their beaks. While their diet is predominantly pine nuts, they also have to supplement their diet with a bit of gritty sand and minerals. This grit helps them break down their food more easily (in the gizzard) and supplements their diet with minerals like calcium. Unfortunately, they often come down on roadways to seek the grit, especially in the winter time when the roads get sanded. This can cause them to be hit by cars, one of the main causes of mortality, especially in irruption years.
Every time I get to spend time with these unique birds, it’s a special treat. I don’t get to see them very often down here in the valley, so every time I do, I try to spend as much time as I can with them. I hope I get a chance to see a lot more of them as we go into fall and winter!
