Life Bird 238

While staying at Grams house after the reunion, I saw my 238th life bird - in her backyard feeder! We were both looking absently out the window when a faintly red bird landed in the feeder that seemed larger than the average house finch. After a few minutes we pulled out the binoculars, and behold - a red crossbill! Even at about 15 feet, the crossed bill was not discernible, but was very obvious through the binoculars. In addition, the coloring was much different than I had anticipated.



(Picture from google)

Ironically, I have been going out to Turnbull Wildlife Refuge in Spokane (Cheney actually) specifically to see a red crossbill for several months - without luck! When mom and dad visited we did see a red bird, but never got the binoculars on it, and now that I have seen the male, I realize it was actually too red to be a crossbill.

After a while, a female and a juvenile bird accompanied the male in grams feeders allowing a good look at the plumage differences. The male almost has a mottled look with chartreuse, yellow, and red feathers kind of intermingled. The female is more yellow, and the juvenile has even less color. It was a fun and unexpected way to get my next lifebird!