Tim writes: Crossbills are one of the first birds to start breeding, sometimes as early as January, but March is more usual. They typically lay four eggs and the female does all the incubation while the male brings her food. Incubation lasts 12-16 days and the young fly about 25 days after hatching. When the young first hatch they have banana yellow cutting edges to the bill, which darkens quite quickly. So this youngster photographed on 22 March is probably no more than a few days after fledging. This means that the parent Crossbills would have started nesting in early February, around the time when Storm Ciara hit. This juvenile was with another juvenile that did not have such a yellow bill, and which had a hint of green in its plumage unlike this colourless individual. So I think this is a young female and the other is a male. And the two parent birds accompanying them had a male which looked like he only hatched last year as his plumage was yellow rather than red. I have included photographs of both parents taken at the same time plus another female taking a drink. These were on the edge of the Peak District near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire.
