Loxia

Loxia is a genus of finches, family Fringillidae, subfamily Carduelinae, known as crossbills, comprising five or six extant species and one extinct species, typically found at higher northern hemisphere latitudes where their food sources grow, extending into the tropics in Central America, Hispaniola, Vietnam and the Philippines. Their most distinctive feature is a bill with crossed mandible tips, which gives the group its name and allows them to extract seeds from conifer cone scales as specialist feeders; males tend toward red or orange coloring and females toward green or yellow, with significant individual variation. Crossbills breed unusually early, often in winter months, to exploit peak conifer cone supplies.