As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday, 19 August 2018

Newly discovered crossbill species numbers few



Date:  August 1, 2018
Source:  American Ornithological Society Publications Office

As might be expected for a recently discovered bird species in the continental United States -- only the second in nearly 80 years -- the Cassia Crossbill (Loxia sinesciuris) is range-restricted. It occurs in just two small mountain ranges on the northeast edge of the Great Basin Desert where it is engaged in a coevolutionary arms race with lodgepole pine. Based on a current paper in The Condor: Ornithological Applications, Cassia Crossbills occupy about 70 km2 of lodgepole pine forest and number only ~5,800 birds.


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