White-winged Crossbill
White-winged Crossbills are rarely seen in Washington, DC. But occasionally when the crop of pine cones up north fails, there will be an irruption of them, which means a lot of them will come into our area. "Irrupt" means to break into, and 2013 was an irruption year for crossbills in DC. This bird was one of a flock at the National Arboretum in the Northeast part of the city. I made a short video of them which you can see on YouTube. In the video, you can see how the upper and lower mandibles of the birds cross, which helps them to extract the seeds from the pine cones.
White-winged Crossbill
White-winged Crossbills are rarely seen in Washington, DC. But occasionally when the crop of pine cones up north fails, there will be an irruption of them, which means a lot of them will come into our area. "Irrupt" means to break into, and 2013 was an irruption year for crossbills in DC. This bird was one of a flock at the National Arboretum in the Northeast part of the city. I made a short video of them which you can see on YouTube. In the video, you can see how the upper and lower mandibles of the birds cross, which helps them to extract the seeds from the pine cones.