On the morning of February 8, 2003, Tom Egan and I birded the Pine Log WMA near White, GA, for Red Crossbills. The weather was clear and sunny, but cold. We parked at the first gate on Stamp Creek Road and walked in along the main road. We crossed the first concrete bridge over the creek and walked further back into the WMA. During the course of the morning, we had Red Crossbills in four different locations on the WMA. Some of the sightings were flyovers that were giving the loud flight call.

The most significant sighting occurred deep in the WMA. We were trying to get a Hermit Thrush to sit up for a photograph by using the Screech Owl call on a bank on the right side of the road beside a grove of Virginia Pines. A pair of Red Crossbills responded immediately to the owl call and came in very close vocalizing loudly. They were not at all shy of us and just sat in a tree over us giving various vocalizations, which were variations of the "jip" call.

It is hard to estimate how long they stayed, but it was at least 10 minutes and possibly longer. During that time, I was busily photographing them, and we observed the male hang upside down and assume various postures, some of which are shown in the accompanying photographs. The pair eventually sat side by side on a limb and engaged in billing, a courtship display. In one of the photographs, the female seems to show a brood patch. The pair was obviously displaying territorial behavior, and appeared to be a mated pair.

When they finally flew away together, we searched the nearby grove of pines for a nest, but did not find one. I took a large number of photographs. Because of the enigmatic nature of Red Crossbill in Georgia, there are few photographs of the species from the state. A nest has yet to be found. The original discovery of the Pine Log crossbills dates back to May 12, 1999 when Deb Zaremba and Kevin Danchisen went to Pine Log WMA looking for Bachman's Sparrow. A pair of Red Crossbills landed in a loblolly pine over their heads to their astonishment.

Prior to their discovery, most crossbill sightings had been from the Cohuttas in the mountains of central north Georgia or from Rabun, Fannin and Union Counties in the mountains of northeast Georgia. Although there were occasional sightings away from the mountains, they were chalked up to the propensity of the species to nomadic wandering. One intriguing report had once come from the Cedartown area of an adult bird accompanied by juveniles at a feeder, but none was subsequently found in the area.

Then in around 1997, a college professor from Jacksonville State University in north Alabama found a Red Crossbill nest along the Pinhoti Trail in the Talladega National Forest near Heflin, Alabama- not too far from Cedartown, GA, where the juvenile crossbills were seen. The nest was in a loblolly pine, and the habitat was typical mature loblolly pine ecosystem. The trees were large with lots of cones. The Alabama discovery started us thinking about the possibility of crossbills nesting away from the mountains, but we weren't sure where to look.

About a year later, Deb and Kevin found the Pine Log birds in a place a lot like the Talladega National Forest. In mid-December, 1999, Giff Beaton and Adam Byrne were at Pine Log and saw a flock of birds settle into a pine tree. To their amazement, it was a flock of over 60 Red Crossbills. The large flock stayed in the area for several days and was seen by many observers. In the years that have followed, Red Crossbill has been regularly observed at Pine Log, even though the pines on which they depend are being relentlessly harvested. It is hoped that someday soon, a nest will be found at Pine Log so that at long last, we can study nesting behavior of the species in Georgia. This narrative is not meant to be a documented scientific paper, but a thumbnail sketch of the status of the species at Pine Log. For any omissions, I apologize in advance.

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