CROSSBILL

any of the three birds of the genus Loxia, noted for their crossed mandibles, with which they pry open conifer cones to get at the seeds. Crossbills are in the family Carduelidae, sometimes considered a subfamily of the Fringillidae (order Passeriformes). The red crossbill (L. curvirostra) and the white-winged, or two-barred, crossbill (L. leucoptera) occur throughout the colder regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and each has a small population isolated in the New World tropics. The parrot crossbill (L. pytyopsittacus) of northern Eurasia has a larger bill.