One December morning when I stept out the north door, a flock of ten CROSSBILLS swung from an apple tree and lit on my hat, shoulders and arms. Thrills are not dependent on the "bright face of danger" for intensity. While they pip-pipped over this strange bush which moved, a feeling I had never experienced before went thru me. One curious male tried to pry open a coat button, another tested the coat lapel while several peeped and exclaimed over the hole in my hat. Curiosity was soon satisfied and they went into conference on twigs nearby.
Muscles controling the crossed mandibles are very powerful and separate pine cones for the seeds, with an easy twist.
They wander into the States in small bands during Winter but are nowhere very common in eastern United States.
Coniferous forests of North America from western Alaska to Nova Scotia. South in Winter, casual to South Carolina.
Mountains of Arizona and New Mexico.
A tree, usually less than 30 feet tall, distributed on foothills of Rocky Mountains from Utah and Wyoming to Texas.