Loxia sinesciuris
Silhouette: Emma Hughes · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The Cassia crossbill (Loxia sinesciuris) is a passerine bird in the family Fringillidae. It is endemic to the South Hills and Albion Mountains in southern Idaho. Cassia crossbill rarely interbreeds with other call types that move into the South Hills of Idaho yearly, and can be considered to represent a distinct species via ecological speciation. The Cassia crossbill have specialized beaks to access the seeds of the lodgepole pine cones in this region, but are poorly adapted to other pine cones in surrounding regions.
The species was first described in 2009, but only was accepted to be its own species in 2017, when it was found out to be phylogenetically distinct from the red crossbill, and its 10 unique call types. The Cassia crossbill shares many physical features with the red crossbill and all of its different call types. Adult males display a brick red plumage along its crown, breast, and belly, while its flight feathers have a brown colour. In contrast, adult females have an overall dull green or olive-yellow colour, with brown flight feathers. Its defining feature, a crossed bill, is a crisscrossed bill used to access the pine cone seeds. However, in relation... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rocky Mountain National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Red Crossbill (Type 9) sighting in Rocky Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 216th most-seen of the 223 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Red Crossbill (Type 9) in Rocky Mountain National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red Crossbill (Type 9) 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 Rocky Mountain National Park, in our data
Rocky Mountain National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Red Crossbill (Type 9) sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red Crossbill (Type 9) is recorded against all the birds logged in Rocky Mountain National Park (12 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.
