Dutch Birding volume 24 (2002) no 4

Presumed escaped White-winged Crossbill at De Zilk in 1963

In van den Berg & Bosman (1999), one of the photographs for Two-barred Crossbill Loxia leucoptera shows a bird of which several features struck us as odd, namely the one showing a female photographed on 7 October 1963 at De Zilk, Noordwijkerhout, Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands. The slender bill with a particularly long upper mandible and the small round head seemed to point towards identification as White-winged Crossbill L l leucoptera from North America rather than Two-barred Crossbill L l bifasciata from Eurasia (cf van den Berg & Bosman 2001). Alan Knox (in litt) agreed that the bill and other structural features clearly indicated leucoptera.

Magnus S Robb, Barentszstraat 126, 1013 NS Amsterdam, Netherlands
robbchello.nl
Arnoud B van den Berg, Duinlustparkweg 98, 2082 EG Santpoort-Zuid, Netherlands
arnoud.vandenberginter.nl.net