Crossbills

Red Crossbills image by Ron LeValley

The Red Crossbill is a type of finch that lives in coniferous forests of North America, including a small population here in Mendocino County. Most songbirds in the Northern Hemisphere breed in Spring when food becomes abundant, but the Crossbill is dependent on conifer seeds, which may be more abundant at other times of the year. Dr. Jamie Cornelius has spent the last decade trekking through northern coniferous forests around the globe in pursuit of these nomadic finches, studying how they cope with high degrees of weather variability and resource uncertainty, and she will be our guest tonight.