The Parrot Crossbill is a crossbill of northern Europe that searches for pine seeds. In Britain it is scarce, with small numbers sometimes arriving from the north in winter.
It is bulkier than related crossbills and has a subtly different call. It can be difficult to distinguish from similar species.
The Parrot Crossbill is a northern European bird that feeds mainly on Scots Pine seeds. A study compared Swedish cone-crop records with historical records of crossbills arriving in Britain and other parts of western Europe. Large Parrot Crossbill movements were associated with years when Scots Pine seed production was low. Common and Parrot Crossbill irruptions were also associated with low Norway Spruce crops.
The model that best fit the records linked large movements of both species with low seed crops of Scots Pine and Norway Spruce after a year of high crops. Seed production by the same conifer species was synchronized across Sweden and Finland. These patterns connected crossbill movements with year-to-year changes in the trees that provide their main food in northern Europe.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In northern European records, large Parrot Crossbill movements were associated with low Scots Pine seed crops; the best-fitting model also included low Norway Spruce crops after high crops in the previous year.