Red Crossbills at Scatter Creek and San Juan Island

This summer I became a big fan of Red Crossbills. For years I have been curious about the finches with the overlapping tips on their bills that allow them to extract conifer seeds from cones, but I hadn’t seen them up close. While I was sitting on the beach one July morning, conducting a Pigeon Guillemot survey, my Merlin bird app picked up Red Crossbills in the tall Douglas Firs. I had to remind myself that I needed to stay in my seat until the survey was complete before I went looking for the crossbills.

Although I still see and hear the crossbills in the trees surrounding our beach in Olympia, I haven’t been able to get close enough to take clear photos of them. Searching eBird I found that they had been seen at Scatter Creek, about a 40 minute drive south of my home, so I went looking for them. I found them right away on my first visit to Scatter Creek Wildlife Area. The photos I took that day were pretty good but not close enough to clearly show their crossed bills. The next day I drove back to Scatter Creek and found them at a watering hole.This time I was delighted to get close-up shots of both juvenile and adult crossbills.The splotchy color of the adults’ feathers made it obvious that they were molting. In breeding season males are bright red and females are yellow; juveniles are a striped gray-brown.

The next couple of times I visited the same Scatter Creek Wildlife Area I didn’t see crossbills so I did a little more eBird research and found that they had been seen at another Scatter Creek unit called Violet Prairie. I spent a pleasant morning roaming through the meadows and hills of Violet Prairie this week and was rewarded by finding a flock of around 35 Red Crossbills in conifer trees. At this point I was enjoying searching for them by following their calls and songs, which are pleasant with a cheerful ring to them. it sounded like they were having a crossbill party. I photographed them perched at the top of Douglas Firs and flying back and forth between the trees. The day was overcast and there wasn’t a great deal of available light so I had to increase exposure and lighten the photos again while editing. The photographs of the birds on the spindly tops of the Douglas Firs look to me like minimalistic paintings of Charlie Brown Christmas trees decorated with pine cones and Red Crossbills.

I enjoyed watching the crossbills and hearing them sing as they flew between the treetops. I was struck by how completely engaged they all were with each other, like they were in their own crossbill world. I find the Violet Prairie photos endearing because even though they were taken from a distance, when I look closely at them I feel like they reveal something about the birds’ individual personalities and relationships. For instance I can see adults sitting with juveniles and birds gazing at each other and watching each other fly.

Because Red Crossbills are nomadic and all aspects of their lives, including breeding times, are based on the availability of conifer cones, I’m really glad I found them and I appreciate having spent some time with them this summer and being able to photograph both adults and juveniles. I’ll happily look forward to seeing them again in the future.