In the spotlight
Dec 01, 2021
1 minute
In most respects, it looks like a rosy- or olive-coloured finch (the rufous plumage belonging to the males expert prising open of tightly closed pine-cone scales. The bird's tongue then flicks down inside to extract the hidden seed. Because the trees hold their cones at different stages of development, in a conifer forest, there's always food available; the hardy little crossbills can, therefore, raise their young as winter rages, without fear of an empty larder.
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