Crossbills, which are members of the finch family, use their curved, overlapping, tweezerlike mandibles to pick seeds from closed cones. The red, or common, crossbill, Loxia curvivostra, is so named because males of the species exhibit a red coloration. The red crossbill has a medium-sized bill and feeds on the seeds of medium-sized spruce cones. Crossbill species with larger or smaller bills pick seeds from the appropriately sized cones of other trees, such as pine (large bill) and larch (small bill).

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