Loxia leucoptera
Silhouette: Emma Hughes · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The two-barred crossbill or white-winged crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It breeds in the coniferous forests of North America and the Palearctic. The two-barred crossbill was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the crossbills in the genus Loxia and coined the binomial name Loxia leucoptera. Gmelin specified the locality as Hudson Bay and New York. The specific epithet leucoptera is from Ancient Greek leukopteros meaning "white-winged" (leukos means "white" and pteron means "wing"). Gmelin based his account on the "white winged crossbill" that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had examined a specimen in the Leverian Museum in London.
Two subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wrangell-St. Elias National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Denali National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Kluane National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Cape Breton Highlands National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Banff National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Jasper National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Gros Morne National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 8 | Riding Mountain National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 9 | Glacier National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Katmai National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Kenai Fjords National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Elk Island National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 14 | Grand Teton National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 16 | Yellowstone National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anchorage | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 3 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Saint Petersburg | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 5 | Moscow | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 6 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Beijing | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 8 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 9 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 10 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a White-winged Crossbill sighting in Denali National Park on a given day, based on 390 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 18th most-seen of the 113 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 80% of wildlife watchers report a White-winged Crossbill in Denali National Park on a given day, against about 20% in May, the lowest month. That is one of Denali National Park's driest months, with about 55 mm of rain against 190 mm in August. November has too few records to rate.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-winged 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.
2nd of 17
Of the 17 parks where we can rate White-winged Crossbill sightings, Denali National Park ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (United States, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Fringillidae
The closest relatives of the White-winged Crossbill that you can see in Denali National Park (family Fringillidae, Finches, Euphonias, and Allies) are Common Redpoll (about 50%) and Pine Siskin (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-winged Crossbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Denali National Park (390 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
