PAKHI DEKHOON PAKHI CHINOON ... OBSERVE THE BIRD AND RECOGNIZE...RED CROSSBILL

PAKHI DEKHOON PAKHI CHINOON #613... OBSERVE THE BIRD AND RECOGNIZE...RED CROSSBILL... WATERCOLOUR...A4... 2015...[From the photograph of Mr. Debapratim Saha] ... The red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae, also known as the common crossbill in Eurasia. Crossbills have distinctive mandibles, crossed at the tips, which enable them to extract seeds from conifer cones and other fruits.
Adults are often brightly coloured, with red or orange males and green or yellow females, but there is wide variation in colour, beak size and shape, and call types, leading to different classifications of variants, some of which have been named as subspecies.
Crossbills are characterized by the mandibles crossing at their tips, which gives the group its English name. Using their crossed mandibles for leverage, crossbills are able to efficiently separate the scales of conifer cones and extract the seeds on which they feed. Adult males tend to be red or orange in colour, and females green or yellow, but there is much variation.
This species is difficult to separate from parrot crossbill and Scottish crossbill, both of which breed within its Eurasian range, as plumage distinctions from those two species are negligible, though the head and bill are smaller than in either of the other species. Care is needed in identification, especially in Eurasia, where the glip or chup call is probably the best indicator. [info:wikipedia]