December 16th, 2013
These are images of Crossbills taken as they came down from the trees to drink in pools. They move around in small flocks of 20 to 30 birds settling in trees before coming down to drink in smaller groups. Their main food is conifer seeds and their crossed bills assist them in extracting the seeds from the cones. These birds are relatively tame and allowed me to get within 20 feet of them giving high resolution images showing good feather detail. The colour of the birds varies, the males are usually brick-red and the female greenish grey, but there were also yellow birds in this flock, the colours were quite vivid helped by a little winter sunshine
