Class Aves
Order Passeriformes
Family Fringillidae
Red Crossbills are creatures of the forested high country. In summer, they currently occur in the high northern mountains of our region; in winter, they may descend to forested highlands throughout the region (Ligon 1961). The crossed tips of its upper and lower bill are well adapted to extracting conifer seeds from their cones. The fossil occurrence at Burnet Cave fits well with the evidences for greater forested conditions in the Guadalupe Mountains during the Pleistocene (Van Devender et al. 1979).
Sites.
Wisconsin: Carpinteria (Guthrie 2009).
Late Wisconsin: Burnet Cave (Schultz and Howard 1935).
Literature. Guthrie 2009Ligon 1961; Schultz and Howard 1935; Van Devender et al. 1979.
Last Update: 28 Dec 2008