Beak morphology predicts apparent survival of crossbills: due to selective survival or selective dispersal?
Dozens of morphologically differentiated populations, subspecies and species of cross- bills (genus Loxia) exist. It has been suggested that this divergence is due to variation in the conifer cones that each population specialises upon, requiring a specific beak size to efficiently separate the cone scales. If so, apparent survival should depend on beak size. To test this hypothesis, we undertook