Family: Fringillidae, Finches view all from this family

Description 6-6 1/2" (15-17 cm). Size of a largish sparrow. Mandibles crossed at tips. Male raspberry-pink; females grayer, without pink. Both sexes have 2 white wing bars.

Habitat Coniferous forests.

Nesting 2-4 pale blue eggs, spotted with dark brown, laid in a shallow saucer of bark strips, grass, and roots lined with moss and plant down, placed near the end of a conifer branch.

Range Breeds from Alaska and northern Quebec south to Newfoundland and British Columbia. In winter, south to Carolinas and Oregon. Also in Eurasia. 

Voice   Call like that of the Red Crossbill, but a softer chiff-chiff-chiff. Song a series of sweet canarylike warbles and trills.

Discussion The White-winged Crossbill with its smaller, slimmer bill is more dependent upon spruce cones than pines, but like the Red Crossbill it wanders widely and irregularly in search of cones and may breed at any month of the year. In years when seeds are abundant in the northern forests the birds tend to remain there. When the supply fails they come south in large numbers and may often be seen in quiet flocks, clinging to clusters of cones like little parrots. Their travels sometimes take them far to the south of their breeding range, and the species has managed to establish itself in the pine forests of Hispaniola in the West Indies.