Red Crossbill

The red, or common, crossbill is a small finch, called red crossbill in North America and common crossbill in Europe. Adults are often brightly coloured, with red or orange males and green or yellow females, but beak size and shape and call types vary widely, leading to different classifications of variants, some named as subspecies. Crossbills are distinguished by mandibles that cross at their tips, and use them as levers to separate the scales of conifer cones and extract the seeds on which they feed (Wikipedia, general species account).

Red crossbills breed in a variety of coniferous forests across North America and Eurasia, and when not breeding the various types may flock together, and also with other species of crossbill. The cached account does not describe its Indian range. SoIB 2023 lists it as a resident and altitudinal migrant forest bird that eats plants and seeds, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).