For many birders, the question “What’s your spark bird?” brings back memories. It reminds them of a moment when one bird sparked a lifelong love for birdwatching.
By Joan Collins
If you spend time with birders, you’ll inevitably hear the question, “What’s your spark bird?” Most can immediately remember the exact moment and specific species that caught their attention, inspiring a passion for birding. Often described as an epiphany or turning point, it can lead to a serious interest in ornithology and connection to nature.
My “spark” was lit during a huge irruption of white-winged crossbills during the winter of 2000-2001. I was completely enchanted by the beautiful red birds that I saw on every winter outing.
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White-winged crossbills are medium-sized finches with crossed mandibles and two white wing-bars. Their lower mandible crosses to the right three times more often than to the left, unlike the one-to-one crossing ratio for red crossbills.
The lovely red birds I saw so long ago were male white-winged crossbills. Males are pink-red with black wings and tail. Females are greenish-yellow to olive-gray with dark streaked breasts and flanks. Immatures have upper and lower sides heavily streaked with blackish-brown.
Of the six crossbill species in the world, the white-winged crossbill is considered the truly “boreal” one. It has two subspecies, the two-barred crossbill ranging from Scandinavia to Siberia, and the white-winged crossbill in North America with a core occurrence across the boreal forests of Alaska to Newfoundland, and a secondary occurrence in the upper Northeast United States and the Washington Cascades to the Central Rocky Mountains.
Nomadic, they chase after abundant cone crops for survival, often traveling great distances with movements that can number tens of thousands. How they locate plentiful cone crops is a mystery.
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Irruptions of white-winged crossbills into the Adirondacks are irregular, depending on food sources to the north and whether we have excellent spruce cone crops here.
Typically, during irruptive years in the Adirondacks, small numbers arrive in summer followed by late summer nesting, with larger numbers arriving in fall and breeding in the winter. There was no summer irruption in 2024, but by late October, white-winged crossbills began to arrive in our area, feeding on tamarack, and red and black spruce cone seeds.
They are highly efficient at finding and extracting conifer seeds, and can eat up to 3,000 seeds per day! A white-winged crossbill’s unique crossed bill is used to pry open cone scales so they can grab a seed with their tongue. The seed is husked and then eaten. They often pick the cone first and hold it in the foot that is on the side opposite to which the lower mandible crosses.
Gritting is a common behavior in roads, on charcoal and the mortar between brick or rock walls. During the huge 2000-2001 irruption, I was standing with other skiers on the porch of Great Camp Santanoni when we observed a remarkable sight. A stone building next door was literally covered with white-winged crossbills gritting on the mortar between the rocks!
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The white-winged crossbill song is a long series of trills interspersed with chirps and warbles. They have many calls, with the most typical sounding like “chut-chut-chut-chut” interspersed with “whit-whit-whit.” Another call is a nasal sound reminiscent of a goldfinch or nuthatch call. Males sing from the tops of trees and in flight.
Nesting is opportunistic for white-winged crossbills, breeding at any time of year as long as food is sufficient to raise young. Females can have two to four clutches a year.
Males do not defend a territory, nesting among other white-winged crossbills. Courtship between monogamous pairs involves bill touching and males feeding females. Females build nests in spruces, often choosing one that’s isolated with few cones, making it unattractive to predatory red squirrels. Nests are near water sources since they drink daily. The male feeds the female while she is on the nest, and both parents feed the young.
It is difficult to assess the population of a nomadic species that lives in remote northern areas not easily surveyed.
Threats to white-winged crossbills include habitat loss due to logging; short logging rotations that don’t allow conifers to reach 60 years old for maximum cone production; decline of the boreal forest due to global warming; and death from trucks and cars when gritting in roadways.
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What’s your spark bird?
Photo at top by Jeff Nadler
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This article first appeared in a recent issue of Adirondack Explorer magazine.
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My “spark” bird was the Bald Eagle. Coincidentally, about the time I started college in the mid 70s, a pair of Bald Eagles were nesting about 20 miles away from my house at Pymatuning State Game Lands near Conneaut Lake, PA. I think they were one of TWO pairs in PA at the time! I was able to access a spotting scope from the Edinboro State College Biology Department where I was going to school, and this allowed me to observe the birds and their nesting behavior for several years, sparking my transition from Chemistry major to Biology (unfortunately we had no Ornithology major). Working as an ad hoc ornithology department, I got into leading field trips (Presque Isle SP, Pymatuning, local forests, etc.) in waterfowl, hawk migration, owls, and the eagles under the mentorship of Dr. Donald Snyder at ESC. I also got into updating our specimen collection and doing some “freeze drying” mounted bird specimens. This culminated in a special waterfowl study in my senior year with another student/friend that monitored Edinboro Lake twice daily over the Spring migration. A fellow student had done the Fall migration just prior to this creating a great picture of migration occuring on the lake.
But Life takes odd turns. Rather than delving deeper into ornithology, I took the easy money in 78-79 and moved to Fulton, NY to work in a brewery! But I did not give up birding. I still spend a great deal of time monitoring waterfowl migration at nearby Ausable Point, Ausable Marsh, and Wickham Marsh. Perhaps my greatest disappointment over the last 25 years is the rapid loss of forest/understory breeding birds surrounding my house. Obviously multifactorial, I place the blame squarely on overbrowsing by our local high deer population. I am gradually shifting my attention to lepidoptera and wildflowers over the summer and tracking similar declines for differing reasons.
So, get out there and take some binoculars and/or a camera with you! Join a club or outing group (like Joan’s) if you like company or need instruction, guidance, and the option to use different optics for observation. But DON’T ignore the butterflies, amphibians, and native wildflowers at your feet – plant NATIVE pollinator species when you get the chance, and don’t be afraid to let your lawn get a little WILD! Overseed with clover and other pollinator species and mow less often. You will suddenly see more birds, butterflies, bees, and other at-risk species – without leaving your property!! If your location allows, keep deer populations in check with aggressive (while legal!) hunting.