Loxia curvirostra – GYLFIN GROES – Erratic visitor, has bred
The Crossbill is described in the bird report as ‘erratic visitor, has bred’. What constitutes an ‘erratic visitor’? Tabulating records from the Pembrokeshire Bird Reports shows that from 1993-2007 they were rarely recorded before May. In some years dozens were recorded, in some years a handful or none.
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 1990 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 54 | 50 | ||||||
| 1991 | 26 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | ||||||
| 1992 | 4 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 1993 | 11 | 17 | 54 | |||||||||
| 1994 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 12 | ||||||||
| 1995 | ||||||||||||
| 1996 | 4 | |||||||||||
| 1997 | 18 | 50 | 70 | 9 | 17 | |||||||
| 1998 | 5 | |||||||||||
| 1999 | 8 | 6 | 7 | |||||||||
| 2000 | 3 | |||||||||||
| 2001 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 2002 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 2003 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 2004 | ||||||||||||
| 2005 | 39 | 1 | 24 | 20 | 6 | |||||||
| 2006 | 12 | 16 | ||||||||||
| 2007 | 2 | 12 | ||||||||||
| 2008 | 30 | 30 | 11 | 19 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 2 | |||
| 2009 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 2 | ||||||||
| 2010 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 4 | ||||||||
| 2011 | 25 | 5 | 20 | 24 | ||||||||
| 2012 | 10 | 10 | 25 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 30 | ||||
| 2013 | 9 | 14 | 18 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| 2014 | heard | 2 | 11 | 4 | ||||||||
| 2015 | 7 | 5 | 38 | 6 | ||||||||
| 2016 | 1 | 7 | 16 | 8 | ||||||||
| 2017 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 27 | ||||
| 2018 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 34 | ||||||||
| 2019 | 2 | 11 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 15 | 9 | 2 | 40 | 49 |
Crossbills are stimulated to breed by an abundance of food – whatever time of year it may occur. The nearest regularly breeding populations are in Ceredigion, where they mostly fledge from February to April. So, good numbers of birds seen in January-April may indicate local breeding. However, it is really necessary to see evidence of actual nesting to be sure they bred here. From May onwards, it gets really difficult to sort out the locals from immigrants.
