A couple of weeks ago a flock of these unusual visitors appeared locally at Tunstall Common and I took the opportunity to go and see them joining many other birdwatchers and photographers not far from the road where the birds had settled in a pine tree feeding from the cones and then retreating to the depths of the tree out of sight.
These birds differ from ordinary crossbills in having a thicker neck and a heavier bill with a shorter tail and sometimes appear in this country from the continent when food supplies are short. The last major influx into the British Isles occurred in the early 1980's when it is thought that they colonised areas of Scotland and were recorded breeding the following year in another part of Tunstall forest. Hopefully these birds can form part of a breeding colony in the forest as I would think that other birds have arrived in the area but have not been noticed as yet. Other small groups of these birds have been noticed in various different locations most notably at Holt were they have been showing regularly for weeks. This particular group hasn't been seen for a couple of weeks but there is a good chance that they have relocated to another part of the forest many areas of which are not easily accessible to the public.
The majority of this group were males as can be seen from the orange/red colouration, the females being much greener are harder to spot in the pine foliage. All of the pictures were taken at distance and so are not of the best quality but you can see how they remove the pine cones with their powerful bills.
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