Loxia pytyopsittacus
Silhouette: Emma Hughes · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The parrot crossbill (Loxia pytyopsittacus) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It breeds in pine forests in northern and northeastern Europe. The parrot crossbill was formally described in 1793 by the German naturalist Moritz Balthasar Borkhausen under the binomial name Loxia pytyopsittacus. The type locality was designated as Sweden by Ernst Hartert.
The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The genus name Loxia is from Ancient Greek loxos meaning "crosswise"; the specific epithet pytyopsittacus combines pitus, pituos meaning "pine" with psittakos meaning "parrot. The crossbills are characterised by the mandibles crossing at their tips, which gives the group its English name.
Some pine-feeding populations currently assigned to red crossbill in southern Europe may possibly be better referred to either this species or alternatively to new species in their own right, but as yet, research into them is still at a very early stage.
Adult males tend to be red or orange in colour, and females green or yellow, but there is much variation. This species is difficult to separate from red and Scottish crossbills, and plumage... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Parrot Crossbill sighting in Helsinki on a given day, based on 75 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 163rd most-seen of the 233 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Parrot Crossbill in Helsinki on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Parrot Crossbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Helsinki, in our data
Helsinki is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Parrot Crossbill sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Parrot Crossbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Helsinki (75 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
