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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1889.txt b/1889.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8512a8d --- /dev/null +++ b/1889.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8199 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Bird Neighbors, by Neltje Blanchan + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. 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An Introductory Acquaintance With One Hundred and Fifty Birds +Commonly Found in the Gardens, Meadows, and Woods About Our Homes + +By NELTJE BLANCHAN + +INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BURROUGHS +1897, 1904, 1922 + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + +INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BURROUGHS + +PREFACE +I. BIRD FAMILIES: Their Characteristics and the + Representatives of Each Family included in "Bird + Neighbors" +II. HABITATS OF BIRDS +III. SEASONS OF BIRDS +IV. BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE +V. DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR + Birds Conspicuously Black + Birds Conspicuously Black and White + Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Birds + Blue and Bluish Birds + Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy + Birds + Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish O1ive Birds + Birds Conspicuously Yellow and Orange + Birds Conspicuously Red of any Shade + + +INTRODUCTION + +I write these few introductory sentences to this volume only to second so +worthy an attempt to quicken and enlarge the general interest in our birds. +The book itself is merely an introduction, and is only designed to place a few +clews in the reader's hands which he himself or herself is to follow up. I can +say that it is reliable and is written in a vivacious strain and by a real +bird lover, and should prove a help and a stimulus to any one who seeks by the +aid of its pages to become better acquainted with our songsters. The various +grouping of the birds according to color, season, habitat, etc., ought to +render the identification of the birds, with no other weapon than an opera +glass, an easy matter. + +When I began the study of the birds I had access to a copy of Audubon, which +greatly stimulated my interest in the pursuit, but I did not have the opera +glass, and I could not take Audubon with me on my walks, as the reader may +this volume. + +But you do not want to make out your bird the first time; the book or your +friend must not make the problem too easy for you. You must go again and +again, and see and hear your bird under varying conditions and get a good hold +of several of its characteristic traits. Things easily learned are apt to be +easily forgotten. Some ladies, beginning the study of birds, once wrote to me, +asking if I would not please come and help them, and set them right about +certain birds in dispute. I replied that that would be getting their knowledge +too easily; that what I and any one else told them they would be very apt to +forget, but that the things they found out themselves they would always +remember. We must in a way earn what we have or keep. Only thus does it become +ours, a real part of us. + +Not very long afterward I had the pleasure of walking with one of the ladies, +and I found her eye and ear quite as sharp as my own, and that she was in a +fair way to conquer the bird kingdom without any outside help. She said that +the groves and fields, through which she used to walk with only a languid +interest, were now completely transformed to her and afforded her the keenest +pleasure; a whole new world of interest had been disclosed to her; she felt as +if she was constantly on the eve of some new discovery; the next turn in the +path might reveal to her a new warbler or a new vireo. I remember the thrill +she seemed to experience when I called her attention to a purple finch singing +in the tree-tops in front of her house, a rare visitant she had not before +heard. The thrill would of course have been greater had she identified the +bird without my aid. One would rather bag one's own game, whether it be with a +bullet or an eyebeam. + +The experience of this lady is the experience of all in whom is kindled this +bird enthusiasm. A new interest is added to life; one more resource against +ennui and stagnation. If you have only a city yard with a few sickly trees in +it, you will find great delight in noting the numerous stragglers from the +great army of spring and autumn migrants that find their way there. If you +live in the country, it is as if new eyes and new ears were given you, with a +correspondingly increased capacity for rural enjoyment. + +The birds link themselves to your memory of seasons and places, so that A +song, a call, a gleam of color, set going a sequence of delightful +reminiscences in your mind. When a solitary great Carolina wren came one +August day and took up its abode near me and sang and called and warbled as I +had heard it long before on the Potomac, how it brought the old days, the old +scenes back again, and made me for the moment younger by all those years! + +A few seasons ago I feared the tribe of bluebirds were on the verge of +extinction from the enormous number of them that perished from cold and hunger +in the South in the winter of '94. For two summers not a blue wing, not a blue +warble. I seemed to miss something kindred and precious from my environment -- +the visible embodiment of the tender sky and the wistful soil. What a loss, I +said, to the coming generations of dwellers in the country -- no bluebird in +the spring! What will the farm-boy date from? But the fear was groundless: the +birds are regaining their lost ground; broods of young blue-coats are again +seen drifting from stake to stake or from mullen-stalk to mullen-stalk about +the fields in summer, and our April air will doubtless again be warmed and +thrilled by this lovely harbinger of spring. -- JOHN BURROUGHS, August 19, +1897 + + +PREFACE + +Not to have so much as a bowing acquaintance with the birds that nest in our +gardens or under the very eaves of our houses; that haunt our wood-piles; keep +our fruit-trees free from slugs; waken us with their songs, and enliven our +walks along the roadside and through the woods, seems to be, at least, a +breach of etiquette toward some of our most kindly disposed neighbors. + +Birds of prey, game and water birds are not included in the book. The +following pages are intended to be nothing more than a familiar introduction +to the birds that live near us. Even in the principal park of a great city +like New York, a bird-lover has found more than one hundred and thirty +species; as many, probably, as could be discovered in the same sized territory +anywhere. + +The plan of the book is not a scientific one, if the term scientific is +understood to mean technical and anatomical. The purpose of the writer is to +give, in a popular and accessible form, knowledge which is accurate and +reliable about the life of our common birds. This knowledge has not been +collected from the stuffed carcasses of birds in museums, but gleaned afield. +In a word, these short narrative descriptions treat of the bird's +characteristics of size, color, and flight; its peculiarities of instinct and +temperament; its nest and home life; its choice of food; its songs; and of the +season in which we may expect it to play its part in the great panorama Nature +unfolds with faithful precision year after year. They are an attempt to make +the bird so live before the reader that, when seen out of doors, its +recognition shall be instant and cordial, like that given to a friend. + +The coloring described in this book is sometimes more vivid than that found in +the works of some learned authorities whose conflicting testimony is often +sadly bewildering to the novice. In different parts of the country, and at +different seasons of the year, the plumage of some birds undergoes many +changes. The reader must remember, therefore, that the specimens examined and +described were not, as before stated, the faded ones in our museums, but live +birds in their fresh, spring plumage, studied afield. + +The birds have been classed into color groups, in the belief that this method, +more than any other will make identification most easy. The color of the bird +is the first, and often the only, characteristic noticed. But they have also +been classified according to the localities for which they show decided +preferences and in which they are most likely to be found. Again, they have +been grouped according to the season when they may be expected. In the brief +paragraphs that deal with groups of birds separated into the various families +represented in the book, the characteristics and traits of each clan are +clearly emphasized. By these several aids it is believed the merest novice +will be able to quickly identify any bird neighbor that is neither local nor +rare. + +To the uninitiated or uninterested observer, all small, dull-colored birds are +"common sparrows." The closer scrutiny of the trained eye quickly +differentiates, and picks out not only the Song, the Canada, and the Fox +Sparrows, but finds a dozen other familiar friends where one who "has eyes and +sees not" does not even suspect their presence. Ruskin says: "The more I think +of it, I find this conclusion more impressed upon me, that the greatest thing +a human soul ever does in this world is to SEE something. Hundreds of people +can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. +To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion -- all in one." + +While the author is indebted to all the time-honored standard authorities, and +to many ornithologists of the present day -- too many for individual mention +-- it is to Mr. John Burroughs her deepest debt is due. To this clear-visioned +prophet, who has opened the blind eyes of thousands to the delights that +Nature holds within our easy reach, she would gratefully acknowledge many +obligations; first of all, for the plan on which "Bird Neighbors" is arranged; +next, for his patient kindness in reading and annotating the manuscript of the +book; and, not least, for the inspiration of his perennially charming writings +that are so largely responsible for the ready-made audience now awaiting +writers on out-of-door topics. + +The author takes this opportunity to express her appreciation of the work the +National Association of Audubon Societies has done and is doing to prevent the +slaughter of birds in all parts of the United States, to develop bird +sanctuaries and inaugurate protective legislation. Indeed to it, more than to +all other agencies combined, is due the credit of eliminating so much of the +Prussianlike cruelty toward birds that once characterized American treatment +of them, from the rising generation. -- NELTJE BLANCHAN + + +I. BIRD FAMILIES + +THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH FAMILY + INCLUDED IN "BIRD NEIGHBORS' + +Order Coccyges: CUCKOOS AND KINGFISHERS + +Family Cuculidae: CUCKOOS + +Long, pigeon-shaped birds, whose backs are grayish brown with a bronze lustre +and whose under parts are whitish. Bill long and curved. Tail long; raised and +drooped slowly while the bird is perching. Two toes point forward and two +backward. Call-note loud and like a tree-toad's rattle. Song lacking. Birds of +low trees and undergrowth, where they also nest; partial to neighborhood of +streams, or wherever the tent caterpillar is abundant. Habits rather solitary, +silent, and eccentric. Migratory. + Yellow-billed Cuckoo. + Black-billed Cuckoo. + +Family Alcedinidae: KINGFISHERS + +Large, top-heavy birds of streams and ponds. Usually seen perching over the +water looking for fish. Head crested; upper parts slate-blue; underneath +white, and belted with blue or rusty. Bill large and heavy. Middle and outer +toes joined for half their length. Call-note loud and prolonged, like a +policeman's rattle. Solitary birds; little inclined to rove from a chosen +locality. Migratory. + Belted Kingfisher. + +Order Pici: WOODPECKERS + +Family Picidae: WOODPECKERS + +Medium-sized and small birds, usually with plumage black and white, and always +with some red feathers about the head. (The flicker is brownish and yellow +instead of black and white.) Stocky, high-shouldered build; bill strong and +long for drilling holes in bark of trees. Tail feathers pointed and stiffened +to serve as a prop. Two toes before and two behind for clinging. Usually seen +clinging erect on tree-trunks; rarely, if ever, head downward, like the +nuthatches, titmice, etc. Woodpeckers feed as they creep around the trunks and +branches. Habits rather phlegmatic. The flicker has better developed vocal +powers than other birds of this class, whose rolling tattoo, beaten with their +bills against the tree-trunks, must answer for their love-song. Nest in +hollowed-out trees. + Red-headed Woodpecker. + Hairy Woodpecker. + Downy Woodpecker. + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. + Flicker. + +Order Macrochires: GOATSUCKERS, SWIFTS, AND HUMMING-BIRDS + +Family Caprimulgidae: NIGHTHAWKS, WHIPPOORWILLS, ETC. + +Medium-sized, mottled brownish, gray, black, and white birds of heavy build. +Short, thick head; gaping, large mouth; very small bill, with bristles at +base. Take insect food on the wing. Feet small and weak; wings long and +powerful. These birds rest lengthwise on their perch while sleeping through +the brightest daylight hours, or on the ground, where they nest. + Nighthawk. + Whippoorwill. + +Family Micropolidae: SWIFTS + +Sooty, dusky birds seen on the wing, never resting except in chimneys of +houses, or hollow trees, where they nest. Tips of tail feathers with sharp +spines, used as props. They show their kinship with the goatsuckers in their +nocturnal as well as diurnal habits, their small bills and large mouths for +catching insects on the wing, and their weak feet. Gregarious, especially at +the nesting season. + Chimney Swift. + +Family Trochilidae: HUMMING-BIRDS + +Very small birds with green plumage (iridescent red or orange breast in +males); long, needle-shaped bill for extracting insects and nectar from +deep-cupped flowers, and exceedingly rapid, darting flight. Small feet. + Ruby-throated Humming-bird. + +Order Passeres: PERCHING BIRDS + +Family Tyrannidae: FLYCATCHERS + +Small and medium-sized dull, dark-olive, or gray birds, with big heads that +are sometimes crested. Bills hooked at end, and with bristles at base. Harsh +or plaintive voices. Wings longer than tail; both wings and tails usually +drooped and vibrating when the birds are perching. Habits moody and silent +when perching on a conspicuous limb, telegraph wire, dead tree, or fence rail +and waiting for insects to fly within range. Sudden, nervous, spasmodic +sallies in midair to seize insects on the wing. Usually they return to their +identical perch or lookout. Pugnacious and fearless. Excellent nest builders +and devoted mates. + Kingbird. + Phoebe. + Wood Pewee. + Acadian Flycatcher. + Great Crested Flycatcher. + Least Flycatcher. + Olive-sided Flycatcher. + Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. + Say's Flycatcher. + +Family Alaudidae: LARKS + +The only true larks to be found in this country are the two species given +below. They are the kin of the European skylark, of which several unsuccessful +attempts to introduce the bird have been made in this country. These two larks +must not be confused with the meadow larks and titlarks, which belong to the +blackbird and pipit families respectively. The horned larks are birds of the +ground, and are seen in the United States only in the autumn and winter. In +the nesting season at the North their voices are most musical. Plumage grayish +and brown, in color harmony with their habitats. Usually found in flocks; the +first species on or near the shore. + Horned Lark. + Prairie Horned Lark. + +Family Corvidae: CROWS AND JAYS + +The crows are large black birds, walkers, with stout feet adapted for the +purpose. Fond of shifting their residence at different seasons rather than +strictly migratory, for, except at the northern limit of range, they remain +resident all the year. Gregarious. Sexes alike. Omnivorous feeders, being +partly carnivorous, as are also the jays. Both crows and jays inhabit wooded +country. Their voices are harsh and clamorous; and their habits are boisterous +and bold, particularly the jays. Devoted mates; unpleasant neighbors. + Common Crow. + Fish Crow. + Northern Raven. + Blue Jay. + Canada Jay. + +Family Icteridae: BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. + +Plumage black or a brilliant color combined with black. (The meadow lark a +sole exception.) Sexes unlike. These birds form a connecting link between the +crows and the finches. The blackbirds have strong feet for use upon the +ground, where they generally feed, while the orioles are birds of the trees. +They are both seed and insect eaters. The bills of the bobolink and cowbird +are short and conical, for they are conspicuous seed eaters. Bills of the +others long and conical, adapted for insectivorous diet. About half the family +are gifted songsters. + Red-winged Blackbird. + Rusty Blackbird. + Purple Grackle. + Bronzed Grackle. + Cowbird. + Meadow Lark. + Western Meadow Lark. + Bobolink. + Orchard Oriole. + Baltimore Oriole. + +Family Fringillidae: FINCHES, SPARROWS, GROSBEAKS, BUNTINGS, + LINNETS, AND CROSSBILLS + +Generally fine songsters. Bills conical, short, and stout for cracking seeds. +Length from five to nine inches, usually under eight inches. This, the largest +family of birds that we have (about one-seventh of all our birds belong to +it), comprises birds of such varied plumage and habit that, while certain +family resemblances may be traced throughout, it is almost impossible to +characterize the family as such. The sparrows are comparatively small gray and +brown birds with striped upper parts, lighter underneath. Birds of the ground, +or not far from it, elevated perches being chosen for rest and song. Nest in +low bushes or on the ground. (Chipping sparrow often selects tall trees.) +Coloring adapted to grassy, dusty habitats. Males and females similar. Flight +labored. About forty species of sparrows are found in the United States; of +these, fourteen may be met with by a novice, and six, at least, surely will +be. + +The finches and their larger kin are chiefly bright-plumaged birds, the +females either duller or distinct from males; bills heavy, dull, and conical, +befitting seed eaters. Not so migratory as insectivorous birds nor so +restless. Mostly phlegmatic in temperament. Fine songsters. + Chipping Sparrow. + English Sparrow. + Field Sparrow. + Fox Sparrow. + Grasshopper Sparrow. + Savanna Sparrow. + Seaside Sparrow. + Sharp-tailed Sparrow. + Song Sparrow. + Swamp Song Sparrow. + Tree Sparrow. + Vesper Sparrow. + White-crowned Sparrow. + White-throated Sparrow. + Lapland Longspur. + Smith's Painted Longspur. + Pine Siskin (or Finch). + Purple Finch. + Goldfinch. + Redpoll. + Greater Redpoll. + Red Crossbill. + White-winged Red Crossbill. + Cardinal Grosbeak. + Rose-breasted Grosbeak. + Pine Grosbeak. + Evening Grosbeak. + Blue Grosbeak. + Indigo Bunting. + Junco. + Snowflake. + Chewink. + +Family Tanagridae: TANAGERS + +Distinctly an American family, remarkable for their brilliant plumage, which, +however, undergoes great changes twice a year, Females different from males, +being dull and inconspicuous. Birds of the tropics, two species only finding +their way north, and the summer tanager rarely found north of Pennsylvania. +Shy inhabitants of woods. Though they may nest low in trees, they choose high +perches when singing or feeding upon flowers, fruits, and insects. As a +family, the tanagers have weak, squeaky voices, but both our species are good +songsters. Suffering the fate of most bright-plumaged birds, immense numbers +have been shot annually. + Scarlet Tanager. + Summer Tanager. + +Family Hirundinidae. SWALLOWS + +Birds of the air, that take their insect food on the wing. Migratory. Flight +strong, skimming, darting; exceedingly graceful. When not flying they choose +slender, conspicuous perches like telegraph wires, gutters, and eaves of +barns. Plumage of some species dull, of others iridescent blues and Greens +above, whitish or ruddy below. Sexes similar. Bills small; mouths large. - +Long and pointed wings, generally reaching the tip of the tail or beyond. Tail +more or less forked. Feet small and weak from disuse. Song a twittering warble +without power. Gregarious birds. + Barn Swallow. + Bank Swallow. + Cliff (or Eaves) Swallow. + Tree Swallow. + Rough-winged Swallow. + Purple Martin. + +Family Ampelidae: WAXWINGS + +Medium-sized Quaker-like birds, with plumage of soft browns and grays. Head +crested; black band across forehead and through the eye. Bodies plump from +indolence. Tail tipped with yellow; wings with red tips to coverts, resembling +sealing-wax. Sexes similar. Silent, gentle, courteous, elegant birds. Usually +seen in large flocks feeding upon berries in the trees or perching on the +branches, except at the nesting season. Voices resemble a soft, lisping +twitter. + Cedar Bird. + Bohemian Waxwing. + +Family Laniidae: SHRIKES + +Medium-sized grayish, black-and-white birds, with hooked and hawk-like bill +for tearing the flesh of smaller birds, +field-mice, and large insects that they impale on thorns. Handsome, bold +birds, the terror of all small, feathered neighbors, not excluding the English +sparrow. They choose conspicuous perches when on the lookout for prey a +projecting or dead limb of a tree, the cupola of a house, the ridge-pole or +weather-vane of a barn, or a telegraph wire, from which to suddenly drop upon +a victim. Eyesight remarkable. Call-notes harsh and unmusical. Habits solitary +and wandering. The first-named species is resident during the colder months of +the year; the latter is a summer resident only north of Maryland. + Northern Shrike. + Loggerhead Shrike. + +Family Vireonidae: VIREOS OR GREENLETS + +Small greenish-gray or olive birds, whitish or yellowish underneath, their +plumage resembling the foliage of the trees they hunt, nest, and live among. +Sexes alike. More deliberate in habit than the restless, flitting warblers +that are chiefly seen darting about the ends of twigs. Vireos are more +painstaking gleaners; they carefully explore the bark, turn their heads upward +to investigate the under side of leaves, and usually keep well hidden among +the foliage. Bill hooked at tip for holding worms and insects. Gifted +songsters, superior to the warblers. This family is peculiar to America. + Red-eyed Vireo. + Solitary Vireo. + Warbling Vireo. + White-eyed Vireo. + Yellow-throated Vireo. + +Family Mniotiltidae: WOOD WARBLERS + +A large group of birds, for the most part smaller than the English sparrow; +all, except the ground warblers, of beautiful plumage, in which yellow, olive, +slate-blue, black, and white are predominant colors. Females generally duller +than males. Exceedingly active, graceful, restless feeders among the terminal +twigs of trees and shrubbery; haunters of tree-tops in the woods at nesting +time. Abundant birds, especially during May and September, when the majority +are migrating to and from regions north of the United States; but they are +strangely unknown to all but devoted bird lovers, who seek them out during +these months that particularly favor acquaintance. Several species are erratic +in their migrations and choose a different course to return southward from the +one they travelled over in spring. A few species are summer residents, and +one, at least, of this tropical family, the myrtle warbler, winters at the +north. The habits of the family are not identical in every representative; +some are more deliberate and less nervous than others; a few, like the +Canadian and Wilson's warblers, are expert flycatchers, taking their food on +the wing, but not usually returning to the same perch, like true flycatchers; +and a few of the warblers, as, for example, the black-and-white, the pine, and +the worm-eating species, have the nuthatches' habit of creeping around the +bark of trees. Quite a number feed upon the ground. All are insectivorous, +though many vary their diet with blossom, fruit, or berries, and naturally +their bills are slender and sharply pointed, rarely finch-like. The +yellow-breasted chat has the greatest variety of vocal expressions. The ground +warblers are compensated for their sober, thrush-like plumage by their +exquisite voices, while the great majority of the family that are gaily +dressed have notes that either resemble the trill of +mid-summer insects or, by their limited range and feeble utterance, sadly +belie the family name. + Bay-breasted Warbler. + Blackburnian Warbler. + Blackpoll Warbler. + Black-throated Blue Warbler. + Black-throated Green Warbler. + Black-and-white Creeping Warbler. + Blue-winged Warbler. + Canadian Warbler. + Chestnut-sided Warbler. + Golden-winged Warbler. + Hooded Warbler. + Kentucky Warbler. + Magnolia Warbler. + Mourning Warbler. + Myrtle Warbler. + Nashville Warbler. + Palm Warbler. + Parula Warbler. + Pine Warbler. + Prairie Warbler. + Redstart. + Wilson's Warbler. + Worm-eating Warbler. + Yellow Warbler. + Yellow Palm Warbler. + Ovenbird. + Northern Water Thrush. + Louisiana Water Thrush. + Maryland Yellowthroat. + Yellow-breasted Chat. + +Family Motacillidae: WAGTAILS AND PIPITS, + +Only three birds of this family inhabit North America, and of +these only one is common enough, east of the Mississippi, to be +included in this book. Terrestrial birds of open tracts near the +coast, stubble-fields, and country roadsides, with brownish +plumage to harmonize with their surroundings. The American pipit, +or titlark, has a peculiar wavering flight when, after being +flushed, it reluctantly leaves the ground. Then its white tail +feathers are conspicuous. Its habit of wagging its tail when +perching is not an exclusive family trait, as the family name +might imply. + American Pipit, or Titlark + +Family Troglodytidae: THRASHERS, WRENS, ETC. + +Subfamily Miminae: THRASHERS, MOCKING-BIRDS, AND CATBIRDS + +Apparently the birds that comprise this large general family are too unlike to +be related, but the missing links or intermediate species may all be found far +South. The first subfamily is comprised of distinctively American birds. Most +numerous in the tropics. Their long tails serve a double purpose-in assisting +their flight and acting as an outlet for their vivacity. Usually they inhabit +scrubby undergrowth bordering woods. They rank among our finest songsters, +with ventriloquial and imitative powers added to sweetness of tone. + Brown Thrasher. + Catbird. + Mocking-bird. + +Subfamily Troglodytinae: WRENS + +Small brown birds, more or less barred with darkest brown above, much lighter +below. Usually carry their short tails erect. Wings are small, for short +flight. Vivacious, busy, excitable, easily displeased, quick to take alarm. +Most of the species have scolding notes in addition to their lyrical, gushing +song, that seems much too powerful a performance for a diminutive bird. As a +rule, wrens haunt thickets or marshes, but at least one species is thoroughly +domesticated. All are insectivorous. + Carolina Wren. + House Wren. + Winter-Wren. + Long-billed Marsh Wren. + Short-billed Marsh Wren. + +Family Certhiidae: CREEPERS + +Only one species of this Old World family is found in America. It is a brown, +much mottled bird, that creeps spirally around and around the trunks of trees +in fall and winter, pecking at the larvae in the bark with its long, sharp +bill, and doing its work with faithful exactness but little spirit. It uses +its tail as a prop in climbing, like the woodpeckers. + Brown Creeper. + +Family Paridae: NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE + +Two distinct subfamilies are included under this general head. The nuthatches +(Sittinae) are small, slate-colored birds, seen chiefly in winter walking up +and down the barks of trees, and sometimes running along the under side of +branches upside down, like flies. Plumage compact and smooth. Their name is +derived from their habit of wedging nuts (usually beechnuts) in the bark of +trees, and then hatching them open with their strong straight bills. + White-breasted Nuthatch. + Red-breasted Nuthatch. + +The titmice or chickadees (Parinae) are fluffy little gray birds, the one +crested. the other with a black cap. They are also expert climbers, though not +such wonderful gymnasts as the nuthatches. These cousins are frequently seen +together in winter woods or in the evergreens about houses. Chickadees are +partial to tree-tops, especially to the highest pine cones, on which they hang +fearlessly. Cheerful, constant residents, retreating to the deep woods only to +nest. + Tufted Titmouse. + Chickadee. + +Family Sylviidae: KINGLETS AND GNATCATCHERS + +The kinglets (Regulinae) are very small greenish-gray birds, with highly +colored crown patch, that are seen chiefly in autumn, winter, and spring south +of Labrador. Habits active; diligent flitters among trees and shrubbery from +limb to limb after minute insects. Beautiful nest builders. Song remarkable +for so small a bird. + Golden-crowned Kinglet. + Ruby-crowned Kinglet. + +The one representative of the distinctly American subfamily of gnatcatchers +(Polioptilinae) that we have, is a small blue-gray bird, whitish below. It is +rarely found outside moist, low tracts of woodland, where insects abound. +These it takes on the wing with wonderful dexterity. It is exceedingly +graceful and assumes many charming postures. A bird of trees, nesting in the +high branches. A bird of strong character and an exquisitely finished though +feeble songster. + Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. + +Family Turdidae: THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. + +This group includes our finest songsters. Birds of moderate size, stout build; +as a rule, inhabitants of woodlands, but the robin and the bluebird are +notable exceptions. Bills long and slender, suitable for worm diet. Only +casual fruit-eaters. Slender, strong legs for running and hopping. True +thrushes are grayish or olive-brown above; buff or whitish below, heavily +streaked or spotted. + Bluebird. + Robin. + Alice's Thrush. + Hermit Thrush. + Olive-backed Thrush. + Wilson's Thrush (Veery). + Wood Thrush. + +Order Columbae, PIGEONS AND DOVES + +Family Columbidae: PIGEONS AND DOVES + +The wild pigeon is now too rare to be included among our bird neighbors; but +its beautiful relative, without the fatally gregarious habit, still nests and +sings a-coo-oo-oo to its devoted mate in unfrequented corners of the farm or +the borders of woodland. Delicately shaded fawn-colored and bluish plumage. +Small heads, protruding breasts. Often seen on ground. Flight strong and +rapid, owing to long wings. + Mourning or Carolina Dove. + + +II. HABITATS OF BIRDS + +BIRDS OF THE AIR CATCHING THEIR FOOD AS THEY FLY + +Acadian Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Olive-sided +Flycatcher, Say's Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Kingbird, Phoebe. +Wood Pewee, Purple Martin, Chimney Swift, Barn Swallow, Bank Swallow, Cliff +Swallow, Tree Swallow, Rough-winged Swallow, Canadian Warbler, Blackpoll +Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill, Ruby-throated +Humming-bird, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. + +BIRDS MOST FREQUENTLY SEEN IN THE UPPER HALF OF TREES + +Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, Chickadee, +Tufted Titmouse, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, nearly all the Warblers except the +Ground Warblers; Cedar Bird, Bohemian Waxwing, the Vireos, Robin, Red +Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, Purple Grackle, Bronzed Grackle, Redstart, +Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Crow, Fish Crow, Raven, Purple Finch, Tree +and Chipping Sparrows, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Kingbird, the Crested and other +Flycatchers. + +BIRDS OF LOW TREES OR LOWER PARTS OF TREES + +Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the Sparrows, the Thrushes, the +Grosbeaks, Goldfinch, Summer Yellowbird and other Warblers; the Wrens, +Bluebird, Mocking-bird, Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Maryland Yellowthroat, +Yellow-breasted Chat. + +BIRDS OF TREE-TRUNKS AND LARGE LIMBS + +Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker, +Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Flicker, White-breasted Nuthatch, +Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, +Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Black-and-white Creeping +Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Pine Warbler, Blackpoll +Warbler, Whippoorwill, Nighthawk. + +BIRDS THAT SHOW A PREFERENCE FOR PINES AND OTHER EVERGREENS + +Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, the Nuthatches, Brown Creeper, the Kinglets, Pine +Warbler, Black-and-white Creeping Warbler and all the Warblers except the +Ground Warblers; Pine Siskin, Cedar Bird and Bohemian Waxwing (in juniper and +cedar trees), Pine Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, the +Grackles, Crow, Raven, Pine Finch. + +BIRDS SEEN FEEDING AMONG THE FOLIAGE AND TERMINAL TWIGS OF TREES + +The Red-eyed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Solitary Vireo, +Yellow-throated Vireo, Golden-crowned Kinglet. Ruby-crowned Kinglet, +Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Yellow Warbler or Summer +Yellowbird, nearly all the Warblers except the Pine and the Ground Warblers; +the Flycatchers, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. + +BIRDS THAT CHOOSE CONSPICUOUS PERCHES + +Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Kingbird, the Wood Pewee, the Phoebe and +other Flycatchers, the Swallows, Kingfisher, Crows, Grackles, Blue Jay and +Canada Jay; the Song, the White-throated, and the Fox Sparrows; the Grosbeaks, +Cedar Bird, Goldfinch, Robin, Purple Finch, Cowbird, Brown Thrasher while in +song. + +BIRDS OF THE GARDENS AND ORCHARDS. + +Bluebird, Robin; the English, Song, White-throated, Vesper, +White-crowned, Fox, Chipping, and Tree Sparrows; Phoebe, Wood Pewee, the Least +Flycatcher, Crested Flycatcher, Kingbird, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, +Mocking-bird, Catbird, House Wren; nearly all the Warblers, especially at +blossom time among the shrubbery and fruit trees; Cedar Bird, Purple Martin, +Eaves Swallow, Barn Swallow, Purple Finch, Cowbird, Baltimore and Orchard +Orioles, Purple Grackle, Bronzed Grackle, Blue Jay, Crow, Fish Crow, Chimney +Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, the Woodpeckers, Flicker, the Nuthatches, +Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, the Cuckoos, Mourning Dove, Junco, Starling. + +BIRDS OF THE WOODS + +The Warblers almost without exception; the Thrushes, the Woodpeckers, the +Flycatchers, the Winter and the Carolina Wrens, the Tanagers, the Nuthatches +and Titmice, the Kinglets, the Water Thrushes, the Vireos, Whippoorwill, +Nighthawk, Kingfisher, Cardinal, Ovenbird, Brown Creeper, Tree Sparrow, Fox +Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Junco. + +BIRDS SEEN NEAR THE EDGES OF WOODS + +The Wrens, the Woodpeckers, the Flycatchers, the Warblers, Purple Finch, the +Cuckoos, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, Cowbird, Brown Creepers, the Nuthatches +and Titmice, the Kinglets, Chewink; the White-crowned, White-throated, Tree, +Fox, and Song Sparrows; Humming-bird, Bluebird, Junco, the Crossbills, the +Grosbeaks, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill, Mourning Dove, Indigo Bird, Brown +Thrasher. + +BIRDS OF SHRUBBERY, BUSHES, AND THICKETS + +Maryland Yellowthroat, Ovenbird (in woods); Myrtle Warbler, Mourning Warbler, +Yellow-breasted Chat, and other Warblers during the migrations; the Shrikes; +the White-throated, the Fox, the Song, and other Sparrows; Chickadee, Junco, +Chewink, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Cowbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Catbird, +Mocking-bird, Wilson's Thrush, Goldfinch, Redpolls, Maryland Yellowthroat, +White-eyed Vireo, Hooded Warbler. + +BIRDS SEEN FEEDING ON THE GROUND + +The Sparrows, Junco, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Chewink, Robin, Ovenbird, Pipit +or Titlark, Redpoll, Greater Redpoll, Snowflake, Lapland Longspur, Smith's +Painted Longspur, Rusty Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird, the Crows, Cowbird, +the Water Thrushes, Bobolink, Canada Jay, the Grackles, Mourning Dove; the +Worm-eating, the Prairie, the Kentucky, and the Mourning Ground Warblers; +Flicker. + +BIRDS OF MEADOW, FIELD, AND UPLAND + +The Field and Vesper Sparrows, Bobolink, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Goldfinch, +the Swallows, Pipit or Titlark, Cowbird, Redpoll, Greater Redpoll, Snowflake, +Junco, Lapland Longspur, Smith's Painted Longspur, Rusty Blackbird, Crow, Fish +Crow, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill; the Yellow, the Palm, and the Prairie Warblers; +the Grackles, Flicker, Bluebird, Indigo Bird. + +BIRDS OF ROADSIDE AND FENCES + +The Sparrows, Kingbird, Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat, Indigo Bird, +Bluebird, Flicker, Goldfinch, Brown Thrasher, Catbird, Robin, the Woodpeckers, +Yellow Palm Warbler, the Vireos. + +BIRDS OF MARSHES AND BOGGY MEADOWS + +Long-billed Marsh Wren, Short-billed Marsh Wren; the Swamp, the Savanna, the +Sharp-tailed, and the Seaside Sparrows; Red-winged Blackbird. + +BIRDS OF WET WOODLANDS AND MARSHY THICKETS + +Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water Thrush, Ovenbird, Winter Wren, Carolina +Wren, Phoebe; Wood Pewee and the other Flycatchers; Wilson's Thrush or Veery, +Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat; the Canadian, Wilson's, +Black-capped, the Maryland Yellowthroat, the Hooded, and the Yellow-throated +Warblers. + +BIRDS FOUND NEAR SALT WATER + +Fish Crow, Common Crow, Bank Swallow, Tree Swallow, Savanna Sparrow, +Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow, Horned Lark, Pipit or Titlark. + +BIRDS FOUND NEAR STREAMS AND PONDS + +Kingfisher, the Swallows, Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water Thrush, +Phoebe, Wood Pewee, the Flycatchers, Winter Wren, Wilson's Black-capped +Warbler, the Canadian and the Yellow Warblers. + +BIRDS THAT SING ON THE WING + +Bobolink, Meadowlark, Indigo Bird, Purple Finch, Goldfinch, Ovenbird, +Kingbird, Vesper Sparrow (rarely), Maryland Yellowthroat, Horned Lark, +Kingfisher, the Swallows, Chimney Swift, Nighthawk, Song Sparrow, Red-winged +Blackbird, Pipit or Titlark, Mocking-bird. + + +III. SEASONS OF BIRDS + +The latitude of New York is taken as an arbitrary division for which +allowances must be made for other localities. + +THE SEASONS OF BIRDS IN THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK OR, APPROXIMATELY, OF THE +FORTY-SECOND DEGREE OF LATITUDE + +PERMANENT RESIDENTS + + Hairy Woodpecker. Swamp Sparrow. + Downy Woodpecker. Song Sparrow. + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Cedar Bird. + Red-headed Woodpecker. Cardinal. + Flicker. Carolina Wren. + Meadowlark. White-breasted Nuthatch. + Prairie Horned Lark. Tufted Titmouse. + Blue Jay. Chickadee. + Crow. Robin. + Fish Crow. Bluebird. + English Sparrow. Goldfinch. + Social Sparrow. Starling. + +WINTER RESIDENTS AND VISITORS + + BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN NOVEMBER AND APRIL + + English Sparrow. Pine Grosbeak. + Tree Sparrow. Redpoll. + White-throated Sparrow. Greater Redpoll. + Swamp Sparrow. Cedar Bird. + Vesper Sparrow. Bohemian Waxwing. + White-crowned Sparrow. Hairy Woodpecker. + Fox Sparrow. Downy Woodpecker. + Song Sparrow. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. + Snowflake. Flicker. + Junco. Myrtle Warbler. + Horned Lark. Northern Shrike. + Meadowlark. White-breasted Nuthatch. + Red-breasted Nuthatch. Goldfinch. + Tufted Titmouse. Pine Siskin. + Chickadee. Lapland Longspur. + Robin. Smith's Painted Longspur. + Bluebird. Evening Grosbeak. + Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Cardinal. + Golden-crowned Kinglet. Blue Jay. + Brown Creeper. Red Crossbill. + Carolina Wren. White-winged Crossbill. + Winter Wren. Crow. + Pipit. Fish Crow. + Purple Finch. Kingfisher. + +SUMMER RESIDENTS + + BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN APRIL AND NOVEMBE& + + Mourning Dove. Red-winged Blackbird. + Black-billed Cuckoo. Rusty Blackbird. + Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Orchard Oriole. + Kingfisher. Baltimore Oriole. + Red-headed Woodpecker. Purple Grackle. + Hairy Woodpecker. Bronzed Grackle. + Downy Woodpecker. Crow. + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Fish Crow. + Flicker. Raven. + Whippoorwill. Blue Jay. + Nighthawk. Canada Jay. + Chimney Swift. Chipping Sparrow. + Ruby-throated Humming-bird. English Sparrow. + Kingbird. Field Sparrow. + Wood Pewee. Fox Sparrow. + Phoebe. Grasshopper Sparrow. + Acadian Flycatcher. Savanna Sparrow. + Crested Flycatcher. Seaside Sparrow. + Least Flycatcher. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. + Olive-sided Flycatcher. Swamp Song Sparrow. + Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Song Sparrow. + Say's Flycatcher. Vesper Sparrow. + Bobolink. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. + Cowbird. Blue Grosbeak. + Indigo Bird. Yellow-breasted Chat. + Scarlet Tanager. Maryland Yellowthroat. + Purple Martin. Mocking-bird. + Barn Swallow. Catbird. + Bank Swallow. Brown Thrasher. + Cliff Swallow. House Wren. + Tree Swallow. Carolina Wren. + Rough-winged Swallow. Long-billed Marsh Wren. + Red-eyed Vireo. Short-billed Marsh Wren. + White-eyed Vireo. Alice's Thrush. + Solitary Vireo. Hermit Thrush. + Warbling Vireo. Olive-backed Thrush. + Yellow-throated Vireo. Wilson's Thrush or Veery. + Black-and-white Warbler. Wood Thrush. + Black-throated Green Warbler. Meadowlark. + Blue-winged Warbler. Western Meadowlark. + Chestnut-sided Warbler. Prairie Horned Lark. + Golden-winged Warbler. White-breasted Nuthatch. + Hooded Warbler. Chickadee. + Pine Warbler. Tufted Titmouse. + Prairie Warbler. Chewink. + Parula Warbler. Purple Finch. + Worm-eating Warbler. Goldfinch. + Yellow Warbler. Cardinal. + Redstart. Robin. + Ovenbird. Bluebird. + Northern Water Thrush. Cedar-Bird. + Louisiana Water Thrush. Loggerhead Shrike. + +SPRING AND AUTUMN MIGRANTS ONLY, OR RARE SUMMER VISITORS + + The following Warblers: + Bay-breasted. Nashville. + Blackburnian. Wilson's Black-capped. + Black-polled. Palm. + Black-throated Blue. Yellow Palm. + Canadian. + Magnolia. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. + Mourning. Summer Tanager. + Myrtle. + +MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS IN VICINITY OF NEW YORK + +FEBRUARY 15 TO MARCH 15 + +Bluebird, Robin, the Grackles, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, +Red-winged Blackbird, Kingfisher, Flicker, Purple Finch. + +MARCH 15 TO APRIL 1 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Cowbird, Meadowlark, Phoebe; the Field, +the Vesper, and the Swamp Sparrows. + +APRIL 1 TO 15 + +The White-throated and the Chipping Sparrows, the Tree and the Barn Swallows, +Rusty Blackbird, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers, Hermit +Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Pipit; the Pine, the Myrtle, and the Yellow Palm +Warblers; Goldfinch. + +APRIL 15 TO MAY 1 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Brown Thrasher; Alice's, the +Olive-backed, and the Wood Thrushes; Chimney Swift, Whippoorwill, Chewink, the +Purple Martin, and the Cliff and the Bank Swallows; Least Flycatcher; the +Black-and-white Creeping, the Parula, and the Black-throated Green Warblers; +Ovenbird, House Wren, Catbird. + +MAY 1 TO 15 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wilson's Thrush or Veery; Nighthawk, +Ruby-throated Humming-bird, the Cuckoos, Crested Flycatcher, Kingbird, Wood +Pewee, the Marsh Wrens, Bank Swallow, the five Vireos, the Baltimore and +Orchard Orioles, Bobolink, Indigo Bird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet +Tanager, Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat, the Water Thrushes; and +the Magnolia, the Yellow, the Black-throated Blue, the Bay-breasted, the +Chestnut-sided, and the Golden-winged Warblers. + +MAY 15 TO JUNE 1. + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Mocking-bird, +Summer Tanager; and the Blackburnian, the Blackpoll, the Worm-eating, the +Hooded, Wilson's Blackcapped, and Canadian Warblers. + +JUNE, JULY, AUGUST + +In June few species of birds are not nesting, in July they may rove about more +or less with their increased families, searching for their favorite foods; +August finds them moulting and moping in silence, but toward the end of the +month, thoughts of returning southward set them astir again. + +AUGUST 15 TO SEPTEMBER 15 + +Bobolink, Cliff Swallow, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Purple +Martin; the Blackburnian, the Worm-eating, the Bay-breasted, the +Chestnut-sided, the Hooded, the Mourning, Wilson's Black-capped, and the +Canadian Warblers; Baltimore Oriole. Humming-bird. + +SEPTEMBER 15 TO OCTOBER 1 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wilson's Thrush, Wood Thrush, Kingbird, +Wood Pewee, Crested Flycatcher; the Least, the Olive-sided, and the Acadian +Flycatchers; the Marsh Wrens, the Cuckoos, Whippoorwill, Rose-breasted +Grosbeak, Orchard Oriole, Indigo Bird; the Warbling, the Solitary, and the +Yellow-throated Vireos; the Black-and-white Creeping, the Golden-winged, the +Yellow, and the Black-throated Blue Warblers; Maryland Yellowthroat, +Yellow-breasted Chat, Redstart. + +OCTOBER 1 TO 15 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Hermit Thrush, Catbird, House Wren, +Ovenbird, the Water Thrushes, the Red-eyed and the White-eyed Vireos, Wood +Pewee, Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Cowbird, Horned Lark, Winter Wren, Junco; the +Tree, the Vesper, the +White-throated, and the Grasshopper Sparrows; the Blackpoll, the Parula, the +Pine, the Yellow Palm, and the Prairie Warblers; Chickadee; Tufted Titmouse. + +OCTOBER 15 TO NOVEMBER 15 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wood Thrush, Wilson's Thrush or Veery, +Alice's Thrush, Olive-backed Thrush, Robin, Chewink, Brown Thrasher, Phoebe, +Shrike; the Fox, the Field, the Swamp, the Savanna, the White-crowned, the +Chipping, and the Song Sparrows; the Red-winged and the Rusty Blackbirds; +Meadowlark, the Grackles, Flicker, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied +Woodpeckers; Purple Finch, the Kinglets. the Nuthatches, Pine Siskin. + + +IV. BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE + +SMALLER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW + + Humming-bird. The Redpolls. + The Kinglets. Goldfinch. + The Wrens. Pine Siskin. + All the Warblers not Savanna Sparrow. + mentioned elsewhere. Grasshopper Sparrow. + Redstart. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. + Ovenbird. Chipping Sparrow. + Chickadee. Field Sparrow. + Tufted Titmouse. Swamp Song Sparrow. + Red-breasted Nuthatch. Indigo-Bunting. + White-breasted Nuthatch. Warbling Vireo. + Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Yellow-throated Vireo. + Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Red-eyed Vireo. + Acadian Flycatcher. White-eyed Vireo. + Least Flycatcher. Brown Creeper. + +ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE ENGLISH SPARROW + + Purple Finch. Junco. + The Crossbills. Song Sparrow. + The Longspurs. Solitary Vireo. + Vesper Sparrow. The Water-thrushes. + Seaside Sparrow. Pipit or Titlark. + Tree Sparrow. Downy Woodpecker. + +LARGER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW AND SMALLER THAN THE ROBIN + + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Kingbird. + Chimney Swift (apparently). Crested Flycatcher. + The Swallows (apparently). Phoebe. + Olive-sided Flycatcher, Snowflake. + Wood Pewee. White-crowned Sparrow. + Horned Lark White-throated Sparrow. + Bobolink. Fox Sparrow + Cowbird. The Tanagers + Orchard Oriole. Cedar Bird. + Baltimore Oriole. Bohemian Waxwing. + The Grosbeaks: Evening, Blue, Yellow-breasted Chat. + Pine, Rose-breasted, The Thrushes. + and Cardinal. Bluebird. + +ABOUT THE LENGTH OF THE ROBIN. + + Red-headed Woodpecker. Northern Shrike. + Hairy Woodpecker. Mocking-bird. + Red-winged Blackbird. Catbird. + Rusty Blackbird. Chewink. + Loggerhead Shrike. Purple Martin (apparently). + Starling. + +LONGER THAN THE ROBIN + + Mourning Dove. Blue Jay. + The Cuckoos. Canada Jay. + Kingfisher. Meadowlark. + Flicker. Whippoorwill (apparently). + Raven. Nighthawk (apparently). + Crow. The Grackles. + Fish Crow. Brown Thrasher. + + +V. DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS + +GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK + + Common Crow. + Fish Crow. + American Raven. + Purple Grackle. + Bronzed Grackle. + Rusty Blackbird. + Red-winged Blackbird. + Purple Martin. + Cowbird. + Starling. + +See also several of the Swallows; the Kingbird, the Phoebe, the Wood Pewee and +other Flycatchers; the Chimney Swift; and the Chewink. + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK + +COMMON CROW + +(Corvus americanus) Crow family + +Called also: CORN THIEF; [AMERICAN CROW, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 16 to 17.50 inches. +Male -- Glossy black with violet reflections. Wings appear + saw-toothed when spread, and almost equal the tail in length. +Female -- Like male, except that the black is less brilliant. +Range -- Throughout North America, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. +Migrations -- March. October. Summer and winter resident. + +If we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain value upon the +broad, strong dash of color in the landscape, given by a flock of crows +flapping their course above a corn-field, against an October sky; but the +practical eye of the farmer looks only for his gun in such a case. To him the +crow is an unmitigated nuisance, all the more maddening because it is clever +enough to circumvent every means devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes its +rapacity; fear is unknown to it. It migrates in broad daylight, chooses the +most conspicuous perches, and yet its assurance is amply justified in its +steadily increasing numbers. + +In the very early spring, note well the friendly way in which the crow follows +the plow, ingratiating itself by eating the larvae, field mice, and worms +upturned in the furrows, for this is its one serviceable act throughout the +year. When the first brood of chickens is hatched, its serious depredations +begin. Not only the farmer's young fledglings, ducks, turkeys, and chicks, are +snatched up and devoured, but the nests of song birds are made desolate, eggs +being crushed and eaten on the spot, when there are no birds to carry off to +the rickety, coarse nest in the high tree top in the woods. The fish crow, +however, is the much greater enemy of the birds. Like the common crows, this, +their smaller cousin, likes to congregate in winter along the seacoast to feed +upon shell-fish and other sea-food that the tide brings to its feet. + +Samuels claims to have seen a pair of crows visit an orchard and destroy the +young in two robins' nests in half an hour. He calculates that two crows kill, +in one day alone, young birds that in the course of the season would have +eaten a hundred thousand insects. When, in addition to these atrocities, we +remember the crow's depredations in the corn-field, it is small wonder that +among the first laws enacted in New York State was one offering a reward for +its head. But the more scientific agriculturists now concede that the crow is +the farmer's true friend. + + +FISH CROW (Corvus ossifragus) Crow family + +Length -- 14 to 16 inches. About half as large again as the + robin. +Male and Female -- Glossy black, with purplish-blue reflections, + generally greener underneath. Chin naked. +Range -- Along Atlantic coast and that of the Gult of Mexico, + northward to southern New England. Rare stragglers or) the + Pacific coast. +Migrations -- March or April. September. Summer resident only at + northern limit of range. Is found in Hudson River valley about + half-way to Albany. + +Compared with the common crow, with which it is often confounded, the fish +crow is of much smaller, more slender build. Thus its flight is less labored +and more like a gull's, whose habit of catching fish that may be swimming near +the surface of the water it sometimes adopts. Both Audubon and Wilson, who +first made this species known, record its habit of snatching food as it flies +over the southern waters -- a rare practice at the north. Its plumage, too, +differs slightly from the common crow's in being a richer black everywhere, +and particularly underneath, where the "corn thief" is dull. But it is the +difference between the two crows' call-note that we chiefly depend upon to +distinguish these confusing cousins. To say that the fish crow says car-r-r +instead of a loud, clear caw, means little until we have had an opportunity to +compare its hoarse, cracked voice with the other bird's familiar call. + +From the farmer's point of view, there is still another distinction: the fish +crow lets his crops alone. It contents itself with picking up refuse on the +shores of the sea or rivers not far inland; haunting the neighborhood of +fishermen's huts for the small fish discarded when the seines are drawn, and +treading out with its toes the shell-fish hidden in the sand at low tide. When +we see it in the fields it is usually intent upon catching field-mice, grubs, +and worms, with which it often varies its fish diet. It is, however, the worst +nest robber we have; it probably destroys ten times as many eggs and young +birds as its larger cousin. + +The fishermen have a tradition that this southern crow comes and goes with the +shad and herring -- a saw which science unkindly disapproves. + + +AMERICAN RAVEN + +(Corvus corax principalis) Crow family + +Called also: NORTHERN RAVEN; [COMMON RAVEN, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 26 to 27 inches. Nearly three times as large as a + robin. +Male and Female -- Glossy black above, with purplish and greenish + reflections. Duller underneath. Feathers of the throat and + breast long and loose, like fringe. +Range -- North America, from polar regions to Mexico. Rare along + Atlantic coast and in the south. Common in the west, and very + abundant in the northwest. +Migrations -- An erratic wanderer, usually resident where it + finds its way. + +The weird, uncanny voice of this great bird that soars in wide circles above +the evergreen trees of dark northern forests seems to come out of the skies +like the malediction of an evil spirit. Without uttering the words of any +language -- Poe's "Nevermore" was, of course, a poetic license -- people of +all nationalities appear to understand that some dire calamity, some wicked +portent, is being announced every time the unbirdlike creature utters its +rasping call. The superstitious folk crow with an "I told you so," as they +solemnly wag their heads when they hear, of some death in the village after +"the bird of ill-omen" has made an unwelcome visit to the neighborhood--it +receives the blame for every possible misfortune. + +When seen in the air, the crow is the only other bird for which the raven +could be mistaken; but the raven does more sailing and less flapping, and he +delights in describing circles as he easily soars high above the trees. On the +ground, he is seen to be a far larger bird than the largest crow. The curious +beard or fringe of feathers on his breast at once distinguishes him. + +These birds show the family instinct for living in flocks large and small, not +of ravens only, but of any birds of their own genera. In the art of nest +building they could instruct most of their relatives. High up in evergreen +trees or on the top of cliffs, never very near the seashore, they make a +compact, symmetrical nest of sticks, neatly lined with grasses and wool from +the sheep pastures, adding soft, comfortable linings to the old nest from year +to year for each new brood. When the young emerge from the eggs, which take +many curious freaks of color and markings, they are pied black and white, +suggesting the young of the western white-necked raven, a similarity which, so +far as plumage is concerned, they quickly outgrow. They early acquire the +fortunate habit of eating whatever their parents set before them +-- grubs, worms, grain, field-mice; anything, in fact, for the raven is a +conspicuously omnivorous bird. + + +PURPLE GRACKLE (Quiscalus quiscula) Blackbird family + +Called also: CROW BLACKBIRD; MAIZE THIEF; KEEL-TAILED GRACKLE; + [COMMON GRACKLE, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the + robin. +Male -- Iridescent black, in which metallic violet, blue, copper, + and green tints predominate. The plumage of this grackle has + iridescent bars. Iris of eye bright yellow and conspicuous. + Tail longer than wings. +Female -- Less brilliant black than male, and smaller. +Range -- Gulf of Mexico to 57th parallel north latitude. +Migrations -- Permanent resident in Southern States. Few are + permanent throughout range. Migrates in immense flocks in March + and September. + +This "refined crow" (which is really no crow at all except in appearance) has +scarcely more friends than a thief is entitled to; for, although in many +sections of the country it has given up its old habit of stealing Indian corn +and substituted ravages upon the grasshoppers instead, it still indulges a +crow-like instinct for pillaging nests and eating young birds. + +Travelling in immense flocks of its own kind, a gregarious bird of the first +order, it nevertheless is not the social fellow that its cousin, the +red-winged blackbird, is. It especially holds aloof from mankind, and mankind +reciprocates its suspicion. + +The tallest, densest evergreens are not too remote for it to build its home, +according to Dr. Abbott, though in other States than New Jersey, where he +observed them, an old orchard often contains dozens of nests. One peculiarity +of the grackles is that their eggs vary so much in coloring and markings that +different sets examined in the same groups of trees are often wholly unlike. +The average groundwork, however, is soiled blue or greenish, waved, streaked, +or clouded with brown. These are laid in a nest made of miscellaneous sticks +and grasses, rather carefully constructed, and lined with mud. Another +peculiarity is the bird's method of steering itself by its tail when it wishes +to turn its direction or alight. + +Peering at you from the top of a dark pine tree with its staring yellow eye, +the grackle is certainly uncanny. There, very early in the spring, you may +hear its cracked and wheezy whistle, for, being aware that however much it may +look like a crow it belongs to another family, it makes a ridiculous attempt +to sing. When a number of grackles lift up their voices at once, some one has +aptly likened the result to a "good wheel-barrow chorus!" The grackle's mate +alone appreciates his efforts as, standing on tiptoe, with half-spread wings +and tail, he pours forth his craven soul to her through a disjointed larynx. +With all their faults, and they are numerous, let it be recorded of both crows +and grackles that they are as devoted lovers as turtle-doves. Lowell +characterizes them in these four lines: + + "Fust come the black birds, clatt'rin' in tall trees, + And settlin' things in windy Congresses; + Queer politicians, though, for I'll be skinned + If all on 'em don't head against the wind." + +The Bronzed Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula aeneus) differs from the preceding +chiefly in the more brownish bronze tint of its plumage and its lack of +iridescent bars. Its range is more westerly, and in the southwest it is +particularly common; but as a summer resident it finds its way to New England +in large numbers. The call-note is louder and more metallic than the purple +grackle's. In nearly all respects the habits of these two birds are identical. + + +RUSTY BLACKBIRD (Scolecophagus carolinus) Blackbird family + +Called also: THRUSH BLACKBIRD; RUSTY GRACKLE; RUSTY ORIOLE; RUSTY +CROW; BLACKBIRD + +Length -- 9 to 9.55 inches. A trifle smaller than the robin. +Male -- In full plumage, glossy black with metallic reflections, + intermixed with rusty brown that becomes more pronounced as the + season advances. Pale straw-colored eyes. +Female -- Duller plumage and more rusty, inclining to gray. Light + line over eye. Smaller than male. +Range -- North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico and + westward to the Plains. +Migrations -- April. November. A few winter north. + +A more sociable bird than the grackle, though it travel in smaller flocks, the +rusty blackbird condescends to mingle freely with other feathered friends in +marshes and by brooksides. You can identify it by its rusty feathers and pale +yellow eye, and easily distinguish the rusty-gray female from the female +redwing that is conspicuously streaked. + +In April flocks of these birds may frequently be seen along sluggish, secluded +streams in the woods, feeding upon the seeds of various water or brookside +plants, and probably upon insects also. At such times they often indulge in a +curious spluttering, squeaking, musical concert that one listens to with +pleasure. The breeding range is mostly north of the United States. But little +seems to be known of the birds' habits in their northern home. + +Why it should ever have been called a thrush blackbird is one of those +inscrutable mysteries peculiar to the naming of birds which are so frequently +called precisely what they are not. In spite of the compliment implied in +associating the name of one of our finest songsters with it, the rusty +blackbird has a clucking call as unmusical as it is infrequent, and only very +rarely in the spring does it pipe a note that even suggests the sweetness of +the redwing's. + + +RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD + +(Agelaius Phamiceus) Blackbird family + +Called also. SWAMP BLACKBIRD; RED-WINGED ORIOLE; RED-WINGED + STARLING + +Length -- Exceptionally variable--7.50 to 9.80 inches. Usually + about an inch smaller than the robin. +Male -- Coal-black. Shoulders scarlet, edged with yellow. +Female -- Feathers finely and inconspicuously speckled with + brown, rusty black, whitish, and orange. Upper wing-coverts + black, tipped with white, or rufous and sometimes spotted with + black and red. +Range -- North America. Breeds from Texas to Columbia River, and + throughout the United States. Commonly found from Mexico to + 57th degree north latitude. +Migrations -- March. October. Common summer resident. + +In oozy pastures where a brook lazily finds its way through the farm is the +ideal pleasure ground of this "bird of society." His notes, "h'-wa-ker-ee" or +"con-quer-ee" (on an ascending scale), are liquid in quality, suggesting the +sweet, moist, cool retreats where he nests. Liking either heat or cold (he is +fond of wintering in Florida, but often retreats to the north while the +marshes are still frozen); enjoying not only the company of large flocks of +his own kind with whom he travels, but any bird associates with whom he can +scrape acquaintance; or to sit quietly on a tree-top in the secluded, +inaccessible bog while his mate is nesting; satisfied with cut-worms, grubs, +and insects, or with fruit and grain for his food -- the blackbird is an +impressive and helpful example of how to get the best out of life. + +Yet, of all the birds, some farmers complain that the blackbird is the +greatest nuisance. They dislike the noisy chatterings when a flock is simply +indulging its social instincts. They complain, too, that the blackbirds eat +their corn, forgetting that having devoured innumerable grubs from it during +the summer, the birds feel justly entitled to a share of the profits. Though +occasionally guilty of eating the farmer's corn and oats and rice, yet it has +been found that nearly seven-eighths of the redwing's food is made up of +weed-seeds or of insects injurious to agriculture. This bird builds its nest +in low bushes on the margin of ponds or low in the bog grass of marshes. From +three to five pale-blue eggs, curiously streaked, spotted, and scrawled with +black or purple, constitute a brood. Nursery duties are soon finished, for in +July the young birds are ready to gather in flocks with their elders. + + "The blackbirds make the maples ring + With social cheer and jubilee; + The red-wing flutes his '0-ka-lee!'" + --Emerson. + + +PURPLE MARTIN (Progne subis) Swallow family + +Length -- 7 to 8 inches. Two or three inches smaller than the + robin. +Male -- Rich glossy black with bluish and purple reflections; + duller black on wings and tail. Wings rather longer than the + tail, which is forked. +Female -- More brownish and mottled; grayish below. +Range -- Peculiar to America. Penetrates from Arctic Circle to + South America. +Migrations -- Late April. Early September. Summer resident. + +In old-fashioned gardens, set on a pole over which honeysuckle and roses +climbed from a bed where China pinks, phlox, sweet Williams, and hollyhocks +crowded each other below, martin boxes used always to be seen with a pair of +these large, beautiful swallows circling overhead. Bur now, alas! the boxes, +where set up at all, are quickly monopolized by the English sparrow, a bird +that the martin, courageous as a kingbird in attacking crows and hawks, +tolerates as a neighbor only when it must. + +Bradford Torrey tells of seeing quantities of long-necked squashes dangling +from poles about the negro cabins all through the South. One day he asked an +old colored man what these squashes were for. + +"Why, deh is martins' boxes," said Uncle Remus. "No danger of hawks carryin' +off de chickens so long as de martins am around." + +The Indians, too, have always had a special liking for this bird. They often +lined a hollowed-out gourd with bits of bark and fastened it in the crotch of +their tent poles to invite its friendship. The Mohegan Indians have called it +"the bird that never rests"--a name better suited to the tireless barn +swallow, Dr. Abbott thinks. + +Wasps, beetles, and all manner of injurious garden insects constitute its diet +-- another reason for its universal popularity. It is simple enough to +distinguish the martins from the other swallows by their larger size and +iridescent dark coat, not to mention their song, which is very soft and sweet, +like musical laughter, rippling up through the throat. + + +COWBIRD (Molothrus ater) Blackbird family + +Called also: BROWN-HEADED ORIOLE; COW-PEN BIRD; COW BLACKBIRD; + COW BUNTING; [BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. +Male -- Iridescent black, with head, neck, and breast glistening + brown. Bill dark brown, feet brownish. +Female -- Dull grayish-brown above, a shade lighter below, and + streaked with paler shades of brown. +Range -- United States, from coast to coast. North into British + America, south into Mexico. +Migrations -- March. November. Common summer resident. + +The cowbird takes its name from its habit of walking about among the cattle in +the pasture, picking up the small insects which the cattle disturb in their +grazing. The bird may often be seen within a foot or two of the nose of a cow +or heifer, walking briskly about like a miniature hen, intently watching for +its insect prey. + +Its marital and domestic character is thoroughly bad. Polygamous and utterly +irresponsible for its offspring, this bird forms a striking contrast to other +feathered neighbors, and indeed is almost an anomaly in the animal kingdom. In +the breeding season an unnatural mother may be seen skulking about in the +trees and shrubbery, seeking for nests in which to place a surreptitious egg, +never imposing it upon a bird of its size, but selecting in a cowardly way a +small nest, as that of the vireos or warblers or chipping sparrows, and there +leaving the hatching and care of its young to the tender mercies of some +already burdened little mother. It has been seen to remove an egg from the +nest of the red-eyed vireo in order to place one of its own in its place. Not +finding a convenient nest, it will even drop its eggs on the ground, trusting +them to merciless fate, or, still worse, devouring them. The eggs are nearly +an inch long, white speckled with brown or gray. + +Cowbirds are gregarious. The ungrateful young birds, as soon as they are able +to go roaming, leave their foster-parents and join the flock of their own +kind. In keeping with its unclean habits and unholy life and character, the +cowbird's ordinary note is a gurgling, rasping whistle, followed by a few +sharp notes. + + +STARLING (Sturnus vulgaris) + +[Called also: EUROPEAN STARLING, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 8 to 9 inches. Weight about equals that of robin, but + the starling, with its short, drooping tail, is chunkier in + appearance. +Male -- Iridescent black with glints of purple, green, and blue. + On back the black feathers, with iridescence of green and + bronze, are tipped with brown, as are some of the tail and wing + feathers. In autumn and early winter feathers of sides of head, + breast, flanks and underparts are tipped with white, giving a + gray, mottled appearance. During the winter most of the white + tips on breast and underparts wear off. Until the first moult + in late summer the young birds are a dark olive-brown in color, + with white or whitish throat. These differences in plumage at + different seasons and different ages make starlings hard to + identify. Red-winged blackbirds and grackles are often mistaken + for them. From early spring till mid-June, starling's rather + long, sharp bill is yellow. Later in summer it darkens. No + other black bird of ours has this yellow bill at any season. +Female -- Similar in appearance. +Range -- Massachusetts to Maryland. Not common beyond 100 miles + inland. (Native of northern Europe and Asia.) +Migrations -- Permanent resident, but flocks show some tendency + to drift southward in winter. + +This newcomer to our shores is by no means so black as he has been painted. +Like many other European immigrants he landed at or near Castle Garden, New +York City, and his descendants have not cared to wander very far from this +vicinity, preferring regions with a pretty numerous human population. The +starlings have increased so fast in this limited region since their first +permanent settlement in Central Park about 1890 that farmers and suburban +dwellers have feared that they might become as undesirable citizens as some +other Europeans -- the brown rat, the house mouse, and the English sparrow. +But a very thorough investigation conducted by the United States Bureau of +Biological Survey (Bulletin No. 868, 1921) is most reassuring in its results. + +Let us first state the case for the prosecution: (1) the starling must plead +guilty to a fondness for cultivated cherries; (2) he is often a persecutor of +native birds, like the bluebird and flicker; (3) his roosts, where he +sometimes congregates in thousands in the autumn, are apt to become public +nuisances, offensive alike to the eye, the nose and the ear. + +But these offences are not so very serious after all. He does not eat so many +cherries as our old friend the robin, though his depredations are more +conspicuous, for whereas the robins in ones and twos will pilfer steadily from +many trees for many days without attracting notice, a crowd of starlings is +occasionally observed to descend en masse upon a single tree and strip it in a +few hours. Naturally such high-handed procedure is observed by many and deeply +resented by the owner of the tree, who suffers the steady but less spectacular +raids of the robins without serious disquiet, + +Less can be said in defense of the starling's scandalous treatment of some +native birds. "Unrelenting perseverance dominates the starling's activities +when engaged in a controversy over a nesting site. More of its battles are won +by dogged persistence in annoying its victim than by bold aggression, and its +irritating tactics are sometimes carried to such a point that it seems almost +as if the bird were actuated more by a morbid pleasure of annoying its +neighbors than by any necessity arising from a scarcity of nesting sites... + +"In contests with the flicker the starling frequently makes up in numbers what +disadvantage it may have in size. Typical of such combats was the one observed +on May 9, at Hartford, Conn., where a group of starlings and a flicker were in +controversy over a newly excavated nest. The number of starlings varied, but +as many as 6 were noted at one time. Attention was first attracted to the +dispute by a number of starlings in close proximity to the hole and by the +sounds of a tussle within. Presently a flicker came out dragging a starling +after him. The starling continued the battle outside long enough to allow one +of its comrades to slip into the nest. Of course the flicker had to repeat the +entire performance. He did this for about half an hour, when he gave up, +leaving the starlings in possession of the nest... + +"Economically considered, the starling is the superior of either the flicker, +the robin, or the English sparrow, three of the species with which it comes in +contact in its breeding operations. The eggs and young of bluebirds and wrens +may be protected by the use of nest boxes with circular openings 1 1/2 inches +or less in diameter. This leaves the purple martin the only species readily +subject to attack by the starling, whose economic worth may be considered +greater than that of the latter, but in no case was the disturbance of a +well-established colony of martins noted." + +As for the nuisance of a big established roost of starlings, it may be abated +by nightly salvos of Roman candles or blank cartridges, continued for a week +or at most ten days. + +So much for the starling in his aspect as an undesirable citizen. Government +investigators, by a long-continued study, have discovered that his good deeds +far outnumber his misdemeanors. Primarily he feeds on noxious insects and +useless wild fruits. Small truck gardens and individual cherry trees may be +occasionally raided by large flocks with disastrous results in a small way. +But on the whole he is a useful frequenter of our door-yards who 'pays his way +by destroying hosts of cut-worms and equally noxious' insects. "A thorough +consideration of the evidence at hand indicates that, based on food habits, +the adult starling is the economic superior of the robin, catbird, flicker, +red-winged blackbird, or grackle." Need more be said for him? + + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE + + Red-headed Woodpecker + Hairy Woodpecker + Downy Woodpecker + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker + Chewink + Snowflake + Rose-breasted Grosbeak + Bobolink + Black-poll Warbler + Black-and-white Creeping Warbler + +See also the Swallows; the Shrikes; Nuthatches and Titmice, the Kingbird and +other Flycatchers; the Nighthawk; the Redstart; and the following Warblers: +the Myrtle; the Bay-breasted, the Blackburnian; and the Black-throated Blue +Warbler. + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE + + +RED-HEADED WOODPECKER (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) Woodpecker + family + +Called also: TRI-COLOR, RED-HEAD + +Length -- 8.50 to 9.75 inches. An inch or less smaller than the + robin. +Male and Female -- Head, neck, and throat crimson; breast and + underneath white; back black and white; wings and tail blue + black, with broad white band on wings conspicuous in flight. +Range -- United States, east of Rocky Mountains and north to + Manitoba. +Migrations -- Abundant but irregular migrant. Most commonly seen + in Autumn, and rarely resident. + +In thinly populated sections, where there are few guns about, this is still +one of the commonest as it is perhaps the most conspicuous member of the +woodpecker family, but its striking glossy black-and-white body and its still +more striking crimson head, flattened out against the side of a tree like a +target, where it is feeding, have made it all too tempting a mark for the +rifles of the sportsmen and the sling-shots of small boys. As if sufficient +attention were not attracted to it by its plumage, it must needs keep up a +noisy, guttural rattle, ker-r-ruck, +ker-r-ruck, very like a tree-toad's call, and flit about among the trees with +the restlessness of a fly-catcher. Yet, in spite of these invitations for a +shot to the passing gunner, it still multiplies in districts where nuts +abound, being "more common than the robin" about Washington, says John +Burroughs. + +All the familiar woodpeckers have two characteristics most prominently +exemplified in this red-headed member of their tribe. The hairy, the downy, +the crested, the red-bellied, the sapsucker, and the flicker have each a red +mark somewhere about their heads as if they had been wounded there and bled a +little -- some more, some less; and the figures of all of them, from much +flattening against tree-trunks, have become high-shouldered and long-waisted. + +The red-headed woodpecker selects, by preference, a partly decayed tree in +which to excavate a hole for its nest, because the digging is easier, and the +sawdust and chips make a softer lining than green wood. Both male and female +take turns in this hollowing-out process. The one that is off duty is allowed +twenty minutes for refreshments, "consisting of grubs, beetles, ripe apples or +cherries, corn, or preferably beech-nuts. At a loving call from its mate in +the hollow tree, it returns promptly to perform its share of the work, when +the carefully observed time is up." The heap of sawdust at the bottom of the +hollow will eventually cradle from four to six glossy-white eggs. + +This woodpecker has the thrifty habit of storing away nuts in the knot-holes +of trees, between cracks in the bark, or in decayed fence rails--too often a +convenient storehouse at which the squirrels may help themselves. But it is +the black snake that enters the nest and eats the young family, and that is a +more deadly foe than even the sportsman or the milliner. + + +HAIRY WOODPECKER (Dryobates villosus) Woodpecker family + +Length--9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin. +Male--Black and white above, white beneath. White stripe down the + back, composed of long hair-like feathers. Brightred band on + the nape of neck. Wings striped and dashed with black and + white. Outer tail feathers white, without bars. White stripe + about eyes and on sides of the head. +Female--Without the red band on head, and body more brownish than + that of the male. +Range--Eastern parts of United States, from the Canadian border + to the Carolinas. +Migrations--Resident throughout its range. + +The bill of the woodpecker is a hammering tool, well fitted for its work. Its +mission in life is to rid the trees of insects, which hide beneath the bark, +and with this end in view, the bird is seen clinging to the trunks and +branches of trees through fair and wintry weather, industriously scanning +every inch for the well-known signs of the boring worm or destructive fly. + +In the autumn the male begins to excavate his winter quarters, carrying or +throwing out the chips, by which this good workman is known, with his beak, +while the female may make herself cosey or not, as she chooses, in an +abandoned hole. About her comfort he seems shamefully unconcerned. Intent only +on his own, he drills a perfectly round hole, usually on the underside of a +limb where neither snow nor wind can harm him, and digs out a horizontal +tunnel in the dry, brittle wood in the very heart of the tree, before turning +downward into the deep, pear-shaped chamber, where he lives in selfish +solitude. But when the nesting season comes, how devoted he is temporarily to +the mate he has neglected and even abused through the winter! Will she never +learn that after her clear-white eggs are laid and her brood raised he will +relapse into the savage and forget all his tender wiles? + +The hairy woodpecker, like many another bird and beast, furnishes much +doubtful weather lore for credulous and inexact observers. "When the +woodpecker pecks low on the trees, expect warm weather" is a common saying, +but when different individuals are seen pecking at the same time, one but a +few feet from the ground, and another among the high branches, one may make +the prophecy that pleases him best. + +The hairy woodpeckers love the deep woods. They are drummers, not singers; but +when walking in the desolate winter woods even the drumming and tapping of the +busy feathered workmen on a resonant limb is a solace, giving a sense of life +and cheerful activity which is invigorating. + + +DOWNY WOODPECKER (Dryobates pubescens) Woodpecker family + +Length -- 6 to 7 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. +Male -- Black above, striped with white. Tail shaped like a wedge + Outer tail feathers white, and barred with black. Middle tail + feathers black. A black stripe on top of head, and distinct + white band over and under the eyes. Red patch on upper side of + neck. Wings, with six white bands crossing them transversely; + white underneath. +Female -- Similar, but without scarlet on the nape, which is + white. +Range -- Eastern North America, from Labrador to Florida. +Migrations -- Resident all the year throughout its range. + +The downy woodpecker is similar to his big relative, the hairy woodpecker, in +color and shape, though much smaller. His outer tail feathers are white, +barred with black, but the hairy's white outer tail feathers lack these +distinguishing marks. + +He is often called a sapsucker -- though quite another bird alone merits that +name -- from the supposition that he bores into the trees for the purpose of +sucking the sap; but his tongue is ill adapted for such use, being barbed at +the end, and most ornithologists consider the charge libellous. It has been +surmised that he bores the numerous little round holes close together, so +often seen, with the idea of attracting insects to the luscious sap. The +woodpeckers never drill for insects in live wood. The downy actually drills +these little holes in apple and other trees to feed upon the inner milky bark +of the tree -- the cambium layer. The only harm to be laid to his account is +that, in his zeal, he sometimes makes a ring of small holes so continuous as +to inadvertently damage the tree by girdling it. The bird, like most others, +does not debar himself entirely from fruit diet, but enjoys berries, +especially poke-berries. + +He is very social with birds and men alike. In winter he attaches himself to +strolling bands of nuthatches and chickadees, and in summer is fond of making +friendly visits among village folk, frequenting the shade trees of the streets +and grapevines of back gardens. He has even been known to fearlessly peck at +flies on window panes. + +In contrast to his large brother woodpecker, who is seldom drawn from timber +lands, the little downy member of the family brings the comfort of his cheery +presence to country homes, beating his rolling tattoo in spring on some +resonant limb under our windows in the garden with a strength worthy of a +larger drummer. + +This rolling tattoo, or drumming, answers several purposes: by it he +determines whether the tree is green or hollow; it startles insects from their +lurking places underneath the bark, and it also serves as a love song. + + +YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER (Sphyrapicus varius) Woodpecker family + +Called also: THE SAPSUCKER; [YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 8 to 8.6 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the + robin. +Male -- Black, white, and yellowish white above, with bright-red + crown, chin, and throat. Breast black, in form of crescent A + yellowish-white line, beginning at bill and passing below eye, + merges into the pale yellow of the bird underneath. Wings + spotted with white, and coverts chiefly white. Tail black; + white on middle of feathers. +Female -- Paler, and with head and throat white. +Range -- Eastern North America, from Labrador to Central America. +Migrations -- April. October. Resident north of Massachusetts. + Most common in autumn. + +It is sad to record that this exquisitely marked woodpecker, the most jovial +and boisterous of its family, is one of the very few bird visitors whose +intimacy should be discouraged. For its useful appetite for slugs and insects +which it can take on the wing with wonderful dexterity, it need not be wholly +condemned. But as we look upon a favorite maple or fruit tree devitalized or +perhaps wholly dead from its ravages, we cannot forget that this bird, while a +most abstemious fruit-eater, has a pernicious and most intemperate thirst for +sap. Indeed, it spends much of its time in the orchard, drilling holes into +the freshest, most vigorous trees; then, when their sap begins to flow, it +siphons it into an insatiable throat, stopping in its orgie only long enough +to snap at the insects that have been attracted to the wounded tree by the +streams of its heart-blood now trickling down its sides. Another favorite +pastime is to strip the bark off a tree, then peck at the soft wood underneath +-- almost as fatal a habit. It drills holes in maples in early spring for sap +only. If it drills holes in fruit trees it is for the cambium layer, a soft, +pulpy, nutritious under-bark. + +These woodpeckers have a variety of call-notes, but their rapid drumming +against the limbs and trunks of trees is the sound we always associate with +them and the sound that Mr. Bicknell says is the love-note of the family. + +Unhappily, these birds, that many would be glad to have decrease in numbers, +take extra precautions for the safety of their young by making very deep +excavations for their nests, often as deep as eighteen or twenty inches. + + +THE CHEWINK (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) Finch family + +Called also: GROUND ROBIN; TOWHEE; TOWHEE BUNTING; TOWHEE GROUND +FINCH; GRASEL; [EASTERN TOWHEE, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 8 to 8.5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the + robin. +Male -- Upper parts black, sometimes margined with rufous. Breast + white; chestnut color on sides and rump. Wings marked with + white. Three outer feathers of tail striped with white, + conspicuous in flight. Bill black and stout. Red eyes; feet + brown. +Female -- Brownish where the male is black. Abdomen shading from + chestnut to white in the centre. +Range -- From Labrador, on the north, to the Southern States; + West to the Rocky Mountains. +Migrations -- April. September and October. Summer resident. Very + rarely a winter resident at the north. + +The unobtrusive little chewink is not infrequently mistaken for a robin, +because of the reddish chestnut on its under parts. Careful observation, +however, shows important distinctions. It is rather smaller and darker in +color; its carriage and form are not those of the robin, but of the finch. The +female is smaller still, and has an olive tint in her brown back. Her eggs are +inconspicuous in color, dirty white speckled with brown, and laid in a sunken +nest on the ground. Dead leaves and twigs abound, and form, as the anxious +mother fondly hopes, a safe hiding place for her brood. So careful +concealment, however, brings peril to the fledglings, for the most cautious +bird-lover may, and often does, inadvertently set his foot on the hidden nest. + +The chewink derives its name from the fancied resemblance of its note to these +syllables, while those naming it "towhee" hear the sound to-whick, to-whick, +to-whee. Its song is rich, full, and pleasing, and given only when the bird +has risen to the branches above its low foraging ground. + +It frequents the border of swampy places and bushy fields. It is generally +seen in the underbrush, picking about among the dead leaves for its steady +diet of earthworms and larvae of insects, occasionally regaling itself with a +few dropping berries and fruit. + +When startled, the bird rises not more than ten or twelve feet from the earth, +and utters its characteristic calls. On account of this habit of flying low +and grubbing among the leaves, it is sometimes called the ground robin. In the +South our modest and useful little food-gatherer is often called grasel, +especially in Louisiana, where it is white-eyed, and is much esteemed, alas! +by epicures. + + +SNOWFLAKE (Plectrophenax nivalis) Finch family + +Called also: SNOW BUNTING [AOU 1998]; WHITEBIRD; SNOWBIRD; SNOW + LARK + +Length -- 7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. +Male and Female -- Head, neck, and beneath soiled white, with a + few reddish-brown feathers on top of head, and suggesting an + imperfect collar. Above, grayish brown obsoletely streaked with + black, the markings being most conspicuous in a band between + shoulders. Lower tail feathers black; others, white and all + edged with white. Wings brown, white, and gray. Plumage + unusually variable. In summer dress (in arctic regions) the + bird is almost white. +Range -- Circumpolar regions to Kentucky (in winter only). +Migrations -- Midwinter visitor; rarely, if ever, resident south + of arctic regions. + +These snowflakes (mentioned collectively, for it is impossible to think of the +bird except in great flocks) are the "true spirits of the snowstorm," says +Thoreau. They are animated beings that ride upon it, and have their life in +it. By comparison with the climate of the arctic regions, no doubt our +hardiest winter weather seems luxuriously mild to them. We associate them only +with those wonderful midwinter days when sky, fields, and woods alike are +white, and a "hard, dull bitterness of cold" drives every other bird and beast +to shelter. It is said they often pass the night buried beneath the snow. They +have been seen to dive beneath it to escape a hawk. + +Whirling about in the drifting snow to catch the seeds on the tallest stalks +that the wind in the open meadows uncovers, the snowflakes suggest a lot of +dead leaves being blown through the all-pervading whiteness. Beautiful soft +brown, gray, and predominating black-and-white coloring distinguish these +capricious visitors from the slaty junco, the "snowbird" more commonly known. +They are, indeed, the only birds we have that are nearly white; and rarely, if +ever, do they rise far above the ground their plumage so admirably imitates. + +At the far north, travellers have mentioned their inspiriting song, but in the +United States we hear only their cheerful twitter. Nansen tells of seeing an +occasional snow bunting in that desolation of arctic ice where the Fram +drifted so long. + + +ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK (Habia ludoviciana) Finch family + +Length -- 7.75 to 8.5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the + robin. +Male -- Head and upper parts black. Breast has rose-carmine + shield-shaped patch, often extending downward to the centre of + the abdomen. Underneath, tail quills, and two spots on wings + white. Conspicuous yellow, blunt beak. +Female -- Brownish, with dark streakings, like a sparrow. No + rose-color. Light sulphur yellow under wings. Dark brown, heavy + beak. +Range -- Eastern North America, from southern Canada to Panama. +Migrations -- Early May. September. Summer resident. + +A certain ornithologist tells with complacent pride of having shot over +fifty-eight rose-breasted grosbeaks in less than three weeks (during the +breeding season) to learn what kind of food they had in their crops. This kind +of devotion to science may have quite as much to do with the growing scarcity +of this bird in some localities as the demands of the milliners, who, however, +receive all of the blame for the slaughter of our beautiful songsters. The +farmers in Pennsylvania, who, with more truth than poetry, call this the +potato-bug bird, are taking active measures, however, to protect the neighbor +that is more useful to their crop than all the insecticides known. It also +eats flies, wasps, and grubs. + +Seen upon the ground, the dark bird is scarcely attractive with his clumsy +beak overbalancing a head that protrudes with stupid-looking awkwardness; but +as he rises into the trees his lovely rose-colored breast and under-wing +feathers are seen, and before he has had time to repeat his delicious, +rich-voiced warble you are already in love with him. Vibrating his wings after +the manner of the mocking-bird, he pours forth a marvellously sweet, clear, +mellow song (with something of the quality of the oriole's, robin's, and +thrush's notes), making the day on which you first hear it memorable. This is +one of the few birds that sing at night. A soft, sweet, rolling warble, heard +when the moon is at its full on a midsummer night, is more than likely to come +from the rose-breasted grosbeak. + +It is not that his quiet little sparrow-like wife has advanced notions of +feminine independence that he takes his turn at sitting upon the nest, but +that he is one of the most unselfish and devoted of mates. With their combined +efforts they construct only a coarse, unlovely cradle in a thorn-bush or low +tree near an old, overgrown pasture lot. The father may be the poorest of +architects, but as he patiently sits brooding over the green, speckled eggs, +his beautiful rosy breast just showing above the grassy rim, he is a succulent +adornment for any bird's home. + + +BOBOLINK (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) Blackbird family + +Called also:REEDBIRD; MAYBIRD; MEADOW-BIRD; AMERICAN ORTOLAN; + BUTTER-BIRD; SKUNK BLACKBIRD + +Length -- 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow. +Male -- In spring plumage: black, with light-yellow patch on + upper neck, also on edges of wings and tail feathers. Rump and + upper wings splashed with white. Middle of back streaked with + pale buff. Tail feathers have pointed tips. In autumn plumage, + resembles female. +Female -- Dull yellow-brown, with light and dark dashes on back. + wings, and tail. Two decided dark stripes on top of head. +Range -- North America, from eastern coast to western prairies. + Migrates in early autumn to Southern States, and in winter to + South America and West Indies. +Migrations -- Early May. From August to October. Common summer + resident. + +Perhaps none of our birds have so fitted into song and story as the bobolink. +Unlike a good child, who should "be seen and not heard," he is heard more +frequently than seen. Very shy, of peering eyes, he keeps well out of sight in +the meadow grass before entrancing our listening ears. The bobolink never +soars like the lark, as the poets would have us believe, but generally sings +on the wing, flying with a peculiar self-conscious flight horizontally thirty +or forty feet above the meadow grass. He also sings perched upon the fence or +tuft of grass. He is one of the greatest poseurs among the birds. + +In spring and early summer the bobolinks respond to every poet's effort to +imitate their notes. "Dignified 'Robert of Lincoln' is telling his name," says +one; "Spink, spank, spink," another hears him say. But best of all are Wilson +Flagg's lines: + + ". . .Now they rise and now they fly; + They cross and turn, and in and out; and down the middle and + wheel about, + With a 'Phew, shew, Wadolincon; listen to me Bobolincon!" + +After midsummer the cares of the family have so worn upon the jollity of our +dashing, rollicking friend that his song is seldom heard. The colors of his +coat fade into a dull yellowish brown like that of his faithful mate, who has +borne the greater burden of the season, for he has two complete moults each +year. + +The bobolinks build their nest on the ground in high grass. The eggs are of a +bluish white. Their food is largely insectivorous: grasshoppers, crickets, +beetles, spiders, with seeds of grass especially for variety. + +In August they begin their journey southward, flying mainly by night. Arriving +in the Southern States, they become the +sad-colored, low-voiced rice or reed bird, feeding on the rice fields, where +they descend to the ignominious fate of being dressed for the plate of the +epicure. + +Could there be a more tragic ending to the glorious note of the gay songster +of the north? + + +BLACKPOLL WARBLER (Dendroica striata) Wood Warbler family + +Length -- 5.5 to 6 inches. About an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Black cap; cheeks and beneath grayish white, forming a + sort of collar, more or less distinct. Upper parts striped + gray, black, and olive. Breast and under parts white, with + black streaks. Tail olive-brown, with yellow-white spots. +Female -- Without cap. Greenish-olive above, faintly streaked + with black. Paler than male. Bands on wings, yellowish. +Range -- North America, to Greenland and Alaska. In winter, to + northern part of South America. +Migrations -- Last of May. Late October. + +A faint "screep, screep," like "the noise made by striking two pebbles +together," Audubon says, is often the only indication of the blackpoll's +presence; but surely that tireless bird-student had heard its more +characteristic notes, which, rapidly uttered, increasing in the middle of the +strain and diminishing toward the end, suggest the shrill, wiry burn of some +midsummer insect. After the opera-glass has searched him out we find him by no +means an inconspicuous bird. A dainty little fellow, with a glossy black cap +pulled over his eyes, he is almost hidden by the dense foliage on the trees by +the time he returns to us at the very end of spring. Giraud says that he is +the very last of his tribe to come north, though the bay-breasted warbler has +usually been thought the bird to wind up the spring procession. + +The blackpoll has a certain characteristic motion that distinguishes him from +the black-and-white creeper, for which a hasty glance might mistake him, and +from the jolly little chickadee with his black cap. Apparently he runs about +the tree-trunk, but in reality he so flits his wings that his feet do not +touch the bark at all; yet so rapidly does he go that the flipping wing-motion +is not observed. He is most often seen in May in the apple trees, peeping into +the opening blossoms for insects, uttering now and then his slender, lisping, +brief song. + +Vivacious, a busy hunter, often catching insects on the wing like the +flycatchers, he is a cheerful, useful neighbor the short time he spends with +us before travelling to the far north, where he mates and nests. A nest has +been found on Slide Mountain, in the Catskills, but the hardy evergreens of +Canada, and sometimes those of northern New England, are the chosen home of +this little bird that builds a nest of bits of root, lichens, and sedges, +amply large for a family twice the size of his. + + +BLACK-AND-WHITE CREEPING WARBLER (Mniotilta varia) Wood Warbler + family + +Called also: VARIED CREEPING WARBLER; BLACK-AND WHITE CREEPER; + WHITEPOLL WARBLER; [BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 5 to inches. About an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Upper parts white, varied with black. A white stripe + along the summit of the head and back of the neck, edged + with black. White line above and below the eye. Black cheeks + and throat, grayish in females and young. Breast white in + middle, with black stripes on sides. Wings and tail rusty + black, with two white cross-bars on former, and soiled white + markings on tail quills. +Female -- Paler and less distinct markings throughout. +Range -- Peculiar to America. Eastern United States and westward + to the plains. North as far as the fur countries. Winters in + tropics south of Florida. +Migrations -- April. Late September. Summer resident. + +Nine times out of ten this active little warbler is mistaken for the downy +woodpecker, not because of his coloring alone, but also on account of their +common habit of running up and down the trunks of trees and on the under side +of branches, looking for insects, on which all the warblers subsist. But +presently the true warbler characteristic of restless flitting about shows +itself. A woodpecker would go over a tree with painstaking, systematic care, +while the black-and-white warbler, no less intent upon securing its food, +hurries off from tree to tree, wherever the most promising menu is offered. + +Clinging to the mottled bark of the tree-trunk, which he so closely resembles, +it would be difficult to find him were it not for these sudden fittings and +the feeble song, "Weachy, weachy, weachy, 'twee, 'twee, 'tweet," he half +lisps, half sings between his dashes after slugs. Very rarely indeed can his +nest be found in an old stump or mossy bank, where bark, leaves. and hair make +the downy cradle for his four or five tiny babies. + + +DUSKY AND GRAY AND SLATE-COLORED BIRDS + + Chimney Swift + Kingbird + Wood Pewee + Phoebe and Say's Phoebe + Crested Flycatcher + Olive-sided Flycatcher + Least Flycatcher + Chickadee + Tufted Titmouse + Canada Jay + Catbird + Mocking-bird + Junco + White-breasted Nuthatch + Red-breasted Nuthatch + Loggerhead Shrike + Northern Shrike + Bohemian Waxwing + Bay-breasted Warbler + Chestnut-sided Warbler + Golden-winged Warbler + Myrtle Warbler + Parula Warbler + Black-throated Blue Warbler + +See also the Grayish Green and the Grayish Brown Birds, particularly the Cedar +Bird, several Swallows, the Acadian and the Yellow-bellied Flycatchers; +Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; the Louisiana Water Thrush; the +Blue-gray Gnatcatcher; and the Seaside Sparrow. See also the females of the +following birds: Pine Grosbeak; White-winged Red Crossbill; Purple Martin; and +the Nashville, the Pine, and the Magnolia Warblers. + +DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED BIRDS + +CHIMNEY SWIFT (Chaetura pelagica) Swift family + +Called also: CHIMNEY SWALLOW; AMERICAN SWIFT + +Length -- to 5.45 inches. About an inch shorter than the English + sparrow. Long wings make its length appear greater. +Male and Female -- Deep sooty gray; throat of a trifle lighter + gray. Wings extend an inch and a half beyond the even tail, + which has sharply pointed and very elastic quills, that serve + as props. Feet are muscular, and have exceedingly sharp claws. +Range -- Peculiar to North America east of the Rockies, and from + Labrador to Panama. +Migrations -- April. September or October. Common summer + resident. + +The chimney swift is, properly speaking, not a swallow at all, though chimney +swallow is its more popular name. Rowing towards the roof of your house, as if +it used first one wing, then the other, its flight, while swift and powerful, +is stiff and mechanical, unlike the swallow's, and its entire aspect suggests +a bat. The nighthawk and whippoorwill are its relatives, and it resembles them +not a little, especially in its nocturnal habits. + +So much fault has been found with the misleading names of many birds, it is +pleasant to record the fact that the name of the chimney swift is everything +it ought to be. No other birds can surpass and few can equal it in its +powerful flight, sometimes covering a thousand miles in twenty-four hours, it +is said, and never resting except in its roosting places (hollow trees or +chimneys of dwellings), where it does not perch, but rather clings to the +sides with its sharp claws, partly supported by its sharper tail. Audubon +tells of a certain plane tree in Kentucky where he counted over nine thousand +of these swifts clinging to the hollow trunk. + +Their nest, which is a loosely woven twig lattice, made of twigs of trees, +which the birds snap off with their beaks and carry in their beaks, is glued +with the bird's saliva or tree-gum into a solid structure, and firmly attached +to the inside of chimneys, or hollow trees where there are no houses about. +Two broods in a season usually emerge from the pure white, elongated eggs. + +What a twittering there is in the chimney that the swifts appropriate after +the winter fires have died out! Instead of the hospitable column of smoke +curling from the top, a cloud of sooty birds wheels and floats above it. A +sound as of distant thunder fills the chimney as a host of these birds, +startled, perhaps, by some indoor noise, whirl their way upward. Woe betide +the happy colony if a sudden cold snap in early summer necessitates the +starting of a fire on the hearth by the unsuspecting householder! The glue +being melted by the fire, "down comes the cradle, babies and all" into the +glowing embers. A prolonged, heavy rain also causes their nests to loosen +their hold and fall with the soot to the bottom. + +Thrifty New England housekeepers claim that bedbugs, commonly found on bats, +infest the bodies of swifts also, which is one reason why wire netting is +stretched across the chimney tops before the birds arrive from the South. + + +KINGBIRD (Tyrannus tyrannus) Flycatcher family + +Called also: TYRANT FLYCATCHER; BEE MARTIN; [EASTERN KINGBIRD, + AOU 1998] + +Length -- 8 inches. About two inches shorter than the robin. +Male -- Ashy black above; white, shaded with ash-color, beneath + A concealed crest of orange-red on crown. Tail black, + Terminating with a white band conspicuous in flight. Wing + feathers edged with white. Feet and bill black. +Female -- Similar to the male, but lacking the crown. +Range -- United States to the Rocky Mountains. British provinces + To Central and South America. +Migrations -- May. September. Common summer resident. + +If the pugnacious propensity of the kingbird is the occasion of its royal +name, he cannot be said to deserve it from any fine or noble qualities he +possesses. He is a born fighter from the very love of it, without provocation, +rhyme, or reason. One can but watch with a degree of admiration his bold +sallies on the big, black crow or the marauding hawk, but when he bullies the +small inoffensive birds in wanton attacks for sheer amusement, the charge is +less entertaining. Occasionally, when the little victim shows pluck and faces +his assailant, the kingbird will literally turn tail and show the white +feather. His method of attack is always when a bird is in flight; then he +swoops down from the telegraph pole or high point of vantage, and strikes on +the head or back of the neck, darting back like a flash to the exact spot from +which he started. By these tactics he avoids a return blow and retreats from +danger. He never makes a fair hand-to-hand fight, or whatever is equivalent in +bird warfare. It is a satisfaction to record that he does not attempt to give +battle to the catbird, but whenever in view makes a grand detour to give him a +wide berth. + +The kingbird feeds on beetles, canker-worms, and winged insects, with an +occasional dessert of berries. He is popularly supposed to prefer the honeybee +as his favorite tidbit, but the weight of opinion is adverse to the charge of +his depopulating the beehive, even though he owes his appellation bee martin +to this tradition. One or two ornithologists declare that he selects only the +drones fur his diet, which would give him credit for marvellous sight in his +rapid motion through the air. The kingbird is preeminently a bird of the +garden and orchard. The nest is open, though deep, and not carefully +concealed. Eggs are nearly round, bluish white spotted with brown and lilac. +With truly royal exclusiveness, the tyrant favors no community of interest, +but sits in regal state on a conspicuous throne, and takes his grand flights +alone or with his queen, but never with a flock of his kind. + + +WOOD PEWEE (Contopus virens) Flycatcher family + +Length -- 6.50 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow. +Male -- Dusky brownish olive above, darkest on head; paler on + throat, lighter still underneath, and with a yellowish tinge on + the dusky gray under parts. Dusky wings and tail, the wing + coverts tipped with soiled white, forming two indistinct bars. + Whitish eye-ring. Wings longer than tail. +Female -- Similar, but slightly more buff underneath. +Range -- Eastern North America, from Florida to northern British + provinces. Winters in Central America. +Migrations -- May. October. Common summer resident + +The wood pewee, like the olive-sided flycatcher, has wings decidedly longer +than its tail, and it is by no means a simple matter for the novice to tell +these birds apart or separate them distinctly in the mind from the other +members of a family whose coloring and habits are most confusingly similar. +This dusky haunter of tall shady trees has not yet learned to be sociable like +the phoebe; but while it may not be so much in evidence close to our homes, it +is doubtless just as common. The orchard is as near the house as it often +cares to come. An old orchard, where modern insecticides are unknown and +neglect allows insects to riot among the decayed bark and fallen fruit, is a +happy hunting ground enough; but the bird's real preferences are decidedly for +high tree-tops in the woods, where no sunshine touches the feathers on his +dusky coat. It is one of the few shade-loving birds. In deep solitudes, where +it surely retreats by nesting time, however neighborly it may be during the +migrations, its pensive, pathetic notes, long drawn out, seem like the +expression of some hidden sorrow. Pe-a-wee, pe-a-wee, pewee-ah-peer is the +burden of its plaintive song, a sound as depressing as it is familiar in every +walk through the woods, and the bird's most prominent characteristic. + +To see the bird dashing about in his aerial chase for insects, no one would +accuse him of melancholia. He keeps an eye on the "main chance," whatever his +preying grief may be, and never allows it to affect his appetite. Returning to +his perch after a successful sally in pursuit of the passing fly, he repeats +his "sweetly solemn thought" over and over again all day long and every day +throughout the summer. + +The wood pewees show that devotion to each other and to their home, +characteristic of their family. Both lovers work on the construction of the +flat nest that is saddled on some mossy or lichen-covered limb, and so +cleverly do they cover the rounded edge with bits of bark and lichen that +sharp eyes only can detect where the cradle lies. Creamy-white eggs, whose +larger end is wreathed with brown and lilac spots, are guarded with fierce +solicitude. + +Trowbridge has celebrated this bird in a beautiful poem. + + +PHOEBE (Sayornis phoebe) Flycatcher family + +Called also: DUSKY FLYCATCHER; BRIDGE PEWEE; WATER PEWEE; + [EASTERN PHOEBE, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 7 inches. About an inch longer than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Dusky olive -- brown above darkest on head, + Which is slightly crested. Wings and tail dusky, the outer + edges of some tail feathers whitish. Dingy yellowish white + underneath. Bill and feet black. +Range -- North America, from Newfoundland to the South Atlantic + States, and westward to the Rockies. Winters south of the + Carolinas, into Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. +Migrations -- March. October. Common summer resident. + +The earliest representative of the flycatcher family to come out of the +tropics where insect life fairly swarms and teems, what does the friendly +little phoebe find to attract him to the north in March while his prospective +dinners must all be still in embryo? He looks dejected, it is true, as he sits +solitary and silent on some projecting bare limb in the garden, awaiting the +coming of his tardy mate; nevertheless, the date of his return will not vary +by more than a few days in a given locality year after year. Why birds that +are mated for life, as these are said to be, and such devoted lovers, should +not travel together on their journey north, is another of the many mysteries +of bird-life awaiting solution. + +The reunited, happy couple go about the garden and outbuildings like +domesticated wrens, investigating the crannies on piazzas, where people may be +coming and going, and boldly entering barn-lofts to find a suitable site for +the nest that it must take much of both time and skill to build. + +Pewit, phoebe, phoebe; pewit, phoebe, they contentedly but rather monotonously +sing as they investigate all the sites in the neighborhood. Presently a +location is chosen under a beam or rafter, and the work of collecting moss and +mud for the foundation and hair and feathers or wool to line the exquisite +little home begins. But the labor is done cheerfully, with many a sally in +midair either to let off superfluous high spirits or to catch a morsel on the +wing, and with many a vivacious outburst of what by courtesy only we may name +a song. + +When not domesticated, as these birds are rapidly becoming, the phoebes dearly +love a cool, wet woodland retreat. Here they hunt and bathe; here they also +build in a rocky bank or ledge of rocks or underneath a bridge, but always +with clever adaptation of their nest to its surroundings, out of which it +seems a natural growth. It is one of the most finished, beautiful nests ever +found. + +A pair of phoebes become attached to a spot where they have once nested; they +never stray far from it, and return to it regularly, though they may not again +occupy the old nest. This is because it soon becomes infested with lice from +the hen's feathers used in lining it, for which reason too close relationship +with this friendly bird-neighbor is discouraged by thrifty housekeepers. When +the baby birds have come out from the four or six little white eggs, their +helpless bodies are mercilessly attacked by parasites, and are often so +enfeebled that half the brood die. The next season another nest will be built +near the first, the following summer still another, until it would appear that +a colony of birds had made their homes in the place. + +Throughout the long summer -- for as the phoebe is the first flycatcher to +come, so it is the last to go -- the bird is a tireless hunter of insects, +which it catches on the wing with a sharp click of its beak like the other +members of its dexterous family. + +Say's Phoebe (Sayornis saya) is the Western representative of the Eastern +species, which it resembles in coloring and many of its habits. It is the bird +of the open plains, a tireless hunter in midair sallies from an isolated +perch, and has the same vibrating motion of the tail that the Eastern phoebe +indulges in when excited. This bird differs chiefly in its lighter coloring, +but not in habits, from the black pewee of the Pacific slope. + + +GREAT-CRESTED FLYCATCHER (Myiarchus crinitus) Flycatcher family + +Called also: CRESTED FLYCATCHER; [GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER, AOU + 1998] + +Length -- 8.50 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. +Male and female -- Feathers of the head pointed and erect. Upper + parts dark grayish-olive, inclining to rusty brown on wings and + tail. Wing coverts crossed with two irregular bars of yellowish + white. Throat gray, shading into sulphur-yellow underneath, + that also extends under the wings. Inner vane of several tail + quills rusty red. Bristles at base of bill. +Range -- From Mexico, Central America, and West Indies northward + to southern Canada and westward to the plains. Most common in + Mississippi basin; common also in eastern United States, south + of New England. +Migrations -- May. September. Common summer resident. + +The most dignified and handsomely dressed member of his family, the crested +flycatcher has, nevertheless, an air of pensive melancholy about him when in +repose that can be accounted for only by the pain he must feel every time he +hears himself screech. His harsh, shrill call, louder and more disagreeable +than the kingbird's, cannot but rasp his ears as it does ours. And yet it is +chiefly by this piercing note, given with a rising inflection, that we know +the bird is in our neighborhood; for he is somewhat of a recluse, and we must +often follow the disagreeable noise to its source in the tree-tops before we +can catch a glimpse of the screecher. Perched on a high lookout, he appears +morose and sluggish, in spite of his aristocratic-looking crest, trim figure, +and feathers that must seem rather gay to one of his dusky tribe. A low +soliloquy, apparently born of discontent, can be overheard from the foot of +his tree. But another second, and he has dashed off in hot pursuit of an +insect flying beyond our sight, and with extremely quick, dexterous evolutions +in midair, he finishes the hunt with a sharp click of his bill as it closes +over the unhappy victim, and then he returns to his perch. On the wing he is +exceedingly active and joyous; in the tree he appears just the reverse. That +he is a domineering fellow, quite as much of a tyrant as the notorious +kingbird, that bears the greater burden of opprobrium, is shown in the fierce +way he promptly dashes at a feathered stranger that may have alighted too near +his perch, and pursues it beyond the bounds of justice, all the while +screaming his rasping cry into the intruder's ears, that must pierce as deep +as the thrusts from his relentless beak. He has even been known to drive off +woodpeckers and bluebirds from the hollows in the trees that he, like them, +chooses for a nest, and appropriate the results of their labor for his +scarcely less belligerent mate. With a slight but important and indispensable +addition, the stolen nest is ready to receive her four cream-colored eggs, +that look as if a pen dipped in purple ink had been scratched over them. + +The fact that gives the great-crested flycatcher a unique interest among all +North American birds is that it invariably lines its nest with snake-skins if +one can be had. Science would scarcely be worth the studying if it did not set +our imaginations to work delving for plausible reasons for Nature's strange +doings. Most of us will doubtless agree with Wilson (who made a special study +of these interesting nests and never found a single one without cast +snake-skins in it, even in districts where snakes were so rare they were +supposed not to exist at all), that the lining was chosen to terrorize all +intruders. The scientific mind that is unwilling to dismiss any detail of +Nature's work as merely arbitrary and haphazard, is greatly exercised over the +reason for the existence of crests on birds. But, surely, may not the sight of +snake-skins that first greet the eyes of the fledgling flycatchers as they +emerge from the shell be a good and sufficient reason why the feathers on +their little heads should stand on end? "In the absence of a snake-skin, I +have found an onion skin and shad scales in the nest," says John Burroughs, +who calls this bird "the wild Irishman of the flycatchers." + + +OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER (Contotus borealis) Flycatcher family + +Length -- 7 to inches. About an inch longer than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Dusky olive or grayish brown above; head + darkest. Wings and tail blackish brown, the former sometimes, + but not always, margined and tipped with dusky white. Throat + yellowish white; other under parts slightly lighter shade than + above. Olive-gray on sides. A tuft of yellowish-white, downy + feathers on flanks. Bristles at base of bill. +Range -- From Labrador to Panama. Winters in the tropics. Nests + usually north of United States, but it also breeds in the + Catskills. +Migrations -- May. September Resident only in northern part of + Its range. + +Only in the migrations may people south of Massachusetts hope to see this +flycatcher, which can be distinguished from the rest of its kin by the darker +under parts, and by the fluffy, +yellowish-white tufts of feathers on its flanks. Its habits have the family +characteristics: it takes its food on the wing, suddenly sallying forth from +its perch, darting about midair to seize its prey, then as suddenly returning +to its identical point of vantage, usually in some distended, dead limb in the +tree-top; it is pugnacious, bold, and tyrannical; mopish and inert when not on +the hunt, but wonderfully alert and swift when in pursuit of insect or +feathered foe. The short necks of the flycatchers make their heads appear +large for their bodies, a peculiarity slightly emphasized in this member of +the family. High up in some evergreen tree, well out on a branch, over which +the shapeless mass of twigs and moss that serves as a nest is saddled, four or +five buff-speckled eggs are laid, and by some special dispensation rarely fall +out of their insecure cradle. + +A sharp, loud whistle, wheu--o-wheu-o-wheu-o, rings out from the throat of +this olive-sided tyrant, warning all intruders off the premises; but however +harshly he may treat the rest of the feathered world, he has only gentle +devotion to offer his brooding mate. + + +LEAST FLYCATCHER (Empidonax minimus) Flycatcher family + +Called also: CHEBEC + +Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Gray or olive-gray above, paler on wings and lower part + of back, and a more distinct olive-green on head. Underneath + grayish white, sometimes faintly suffused with pale yellow. + wings have whitish bars. White eye-ring. Lower half of bill + horn color. +Female is slightly more yellowish underneath. +Range -- Eastern North America, from tropics northward to Quebec, +Migrations -- May. September. Common summer resident. + +This, the smallest member of its family, takes the place of the more southerly +Acadian flycatcher, throughout New England and the region of the Great Lakes. +But, unlike his Southern relative, he prefers orchards and gardens close to +our homes for his hunting grounds rather than the wet recesses of the forests. +Che-bec, che-bec, the diminutive olive-pated gray sprite calls out from the +orchard between his aerial sallies after the passing insects that have been +attracted by the decaying fruit, and chebec is the name by which many New +Englanders know him. + +While giving this characteristic call-note, with drooping jerking tail, +trembling wings, and uplifted parti-colored bill, he looks unnerved and limp +by the effort it has cost him. But in the next instant a gnat flies past. How +quickly the bird recovers itself, and charges full-tilt at his passing dinner! +The sharp click of his little bill proves that he has not missed his aim; and +after careering about in the air another minute or two, looking for more game +to snap up on the wing, he will return to the same perch and take up his +familiar refrain. Without hearing this call-note one might often mistake the +bird for either the wood pewee or the phoebe, for all the three are similarly +clothed and have many traits in common. The slightly large size of the phoebe +and pewee is not always apparent when they are seen perching on the trees. +Unlike the "tuft of hay" to which the Acadian flycatcher's nest has been +likened, the least flycatcher's home is a neat, substantial cup-shaped cradle +softly lined with down or horsehair, and placed generally in an upright crotch +of a tree, well above the ground. + + +THE CHICKADEE (Parus atricapillus) Titmouse family + +Called also: BLACK-CAPPED TITMOUSE; BLACK-CAP TIT; [BLACK-CAPPED + CHICKADEE, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Not crested. Crown and nape and throat black. + Above gray, slightly tinged with brown. A white space, + beginning at base of bill, extends backwards, widening over + cheeks and upper part of breast, forming a sort of collar that + almost surrounds neck. Underneath dirty white. with pale rusty + brown wash on sides. Wings and tail gray. with white edgings. + Plumage downy. +Range -- Eastern North America. North of the Carolinas to + Labrador. Does not migrate in the North. +Migrations -- Late September. May. Winter resident; permanent + resident in northern parts of the United States. + +No "fair weather friend" is the jolly little chickadee. In the depth of the +autumn equinoctial storm it returns to the tops of the trees close by the +house, where, through the sunshine, snow, and tempest of the entire winter, +you may hear its cheery, irrepressible chickadee-dee-dee-dee or day-day-day as +it swings Around the dangling cones of the evergreens. It fairly overflows +with good spirits, and is never more contagiously gay than in a snowstorm. So +active, so friendly and cheering, what would the long northern winters be like +without this lovable little neighbor? + +It serves a more utilitarian purpose, however, than bracing faint-hearted +spirits. "There is no bird that compares with it in destroying the female +canker-worm moths and their eggs," writes a well-known entomologist. He +calculates that as a chickadee destroys about 5,500 eggs in one day, it will +eat 138,750 eggs in the twenty-five days it takes the canker-worm moth to +crawl up the trees. The moral that it pays to attract chickadees about your +home by feeding them in winter is obvious. Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, in her +delightful and helpful book "Birdcraft," tells us how she makes a sort of a +bird-hash of finely minced raw meat, waste canary-seed, buckwheat, and cracked +oats, which she scatters in a sheltered spot for all the winter birds. The way +this is consumed leaves no doubt of its popularity. A raw bone, hung from an +evergreen limb, is equally appreciated. + +Friendly as the chickadee is and Dr. Abbott declares it the tamest bird we +have it prefers well-timbered districts, especially where there are red-bud +trees, when it is time to nest. It is very often clever enough to leave the +labor of hollowing out a nest in the tree-trunk to the woodpecker or nuthatch, +whose old homes it readily appropriates; or, when these birds object, a +knot-hole or a hollow fence-rail answers every purpose. Here, in the summer +woods, when family cares beset it, a plaintive, minor whistle replaces the +chickadee-dee-dee that Thoreau likens to "silver tinkling" as he heard it on a +frosty morning. + + "Piped a tiny voice near by, + Gay and polite, a cheerful cry + Chick-chickadeedee! saucy note + Out of sound heart and merry throat, + As if it said, 'Good-day, good Sir! + Fine afternoon, old passenger! + Happy to meet you in these places + Where January brings few faces.'" + -- Emerson. + + +TUFTED TITMOUSE (Parus bicolor) Titmouse family + +Called also: CRESTED TITMOUSE; CRESTED TOMTIT + +Length -- 6 to 6. inches. About the size of the English sparrow. +Male and Female -- Crest high and pointed. Leaden or ash-gray + above; darkest on wings and tail. Frontlet, bill, and shoulders + black; space between eyes gray. Sides of head dull white. Under + parts light gray; sides yellowish, tinged with red. +Range -- United States east of plains, and only rarely seen so + far north as New England. +Migrations -- October. April. Winter resident, but also found + throughout the year in many States. + +"A noisy titmouse is Jack Frost's trumpeter" may be one of those few +weather-wise proverbs with a grain of truth in them. As the chickadee comes +from the woods with the frost, so it may be noticed his cousin, the crested +titmouse, is in more noisy evidence throughout the winter. + +One might sometimes think his whistle, like a tugboat's, worked by steam. But +how effectually nesting cares alone can silence it in April! + +Titmice always see to it you are not lonely as you walk through the woods. +This lordly tomtit, with his jaunty crest, keeps up a persistent whistle at +you as he flits from tree to tree, leading you deeper into the forest, calling +out "Here-here-here!', and looking like a pert and jaunty little blue jay, +minus his gay clothes. Mr. Nehrling translates one of the calls +"Heedle-deedle-deedle-dee!" and another "Peto-peto-peto-daytee-daytee!" But it +is at the former, sharply whistled as the crested titmouse gives it, that +every dog pricks up his ears. + +Comparatively little has been written about this bird, because it is not often +found in New England, where most of the bird litterateurs have lived. South of +New York State, however, it is a common resident, and much respected for the +good work it does in destroying injurious insects, though it is more fond of +varying its diet with nuts, berries, and seeds than that all-round benefactor, +the chickadee. + + +CANADA JAY (Perisoreus canadensis) Crow and Jay family + +Called also: WHISKY JACK OR JOHN; MOOSE-BIRD; MEAT BIRD; VENISON + HERON; GREASE-BIRD; CANADIAN CARRION-BIRD; CAMP ROBBER; [GRAY + JAY, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 11 to 12 inches. About two inches larger than the + robin. +Male and Female -- Upper p arts gray; darkest on wings and tail; + back of the head and nape of the neck sooty, almost black. + Forehead, throat, and neck white, and a few white tips on wings + and tail. Underneath lighter gray. Tail long. Plumage fluffy. +Range -- Northern parts of the United States and British + Provinces of North America. +Migrations -- Resident where found. + +The Canada jay looks like an exaggerated chickadee, and both birds are equally +fond of bitter cold weather, but here the similarity stops short. Where the +chickadee is friendly the jay is impudent and bold; hardly less of a villain +than his blue relative when it comes to marauding other birds' nests and +destroying their young. With all his vices, however, intemperance cannot be +attributed to him, in spite of the name given him by the Adirondack lumbermen +and guides. "Whisky John" is a purely innocent corruption of +"Wis-ka-tjon," as the Indians call this bird that haunts their camps and +familiarly enters their wigwams. The numerous popular names by which the +Canada jays are known are admirably accounted for by Mr. Hardy in a bulletin +issued by the Smithsonian Institution. + +"They will enter the tents, and often alight on the bow of a canoe, where the +paddle at every stroke comes within eighteen inches of them. I know nothing +which can be eaten that they will not take, and I had one steal all my +candles, pulling them out endwise, one by one, from a piece of birch bark in +which they were rolled, and another peck a large hole in a keg of castile +soap. A duck which I had picked and laid down for a few minutes, had the +entire breast eaten out by one or more of these birds. I have seen one alight +in the middle of my canoe and peck away at the carcass of a beaver I had +skinned. They often spoil deer saddles by pecking into them near the kidneys. +They do great damage to the trappers by stealing the bait from traps set for +martens and minks and by eating trapped game. They will sit quietly and see +you build a log trap and bait it, and then, almost before your back is turned, +you hear their hateful ca-ca-ca! as they glide down and peer into it. They +will work steadily, carrying off meat and hiding it. I have thrown out pieces, +and watched one to see how much he would carry off. He flew across a wide +stream, and in a short time looked as bloody as a butcher from carrying large +pieces; but his patience held out longer than mine. I think one would work as +long as Mark Twain's California jay did trying to fill a miner's cabin with +acorns through a knot-hole in the root. They are fond of the berries of the +mountain ash, and, in fact, few things come amiss; I believe they do not +possess a single good quality except industry." + +One virtue not mentioned by Mr. Hardy is their prudent saving from the summer +surplus to keep the winter storeroom well supplied like a squirrel's. Such +thrift is the more necessary when a clamorous, hungry family of young jays +must be reared while the thermometer is often as low as thirty degrees below +zero at the end of March. How eggs are ever hatched at all in a temperature +calculated to freeze any sitting bird stiff, is one of the mysteries of the +woods. And yet four or five fluffy little jays, that look as if they were +dressed in gray fur, emerge from the eggs before the spring sunshine has +unbound the icy rivers or melted the snowdrifts piled high around the +evergreens. + + +CATBIRD (Galcoscoptes carolinensis ) Mocking-bird family + +Called also: BLACK-CAPPED THRUSH; [GRAY CATBIRD, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 9 inches. An inch shorter than the robin. +Male and Female -- Dark slate above; below somewhat paler; top of + head black. Distinct chestnut patch under the tail, which is + black; feet and bill black also. Wings short, more than two + inches shorter than the tail. +Range -- British provinces to Mexico; west to Rocky Mountains, + to Pacific coast. Winters in Southern States, Central + America, and Cuba. +Migrations -- May. November. Common summer resident, + +Our familiar catbird, of all the feathered tribe, presents the most contrary +characteristics, and is therefore held in varied estimation -- loved, admired, +ridiculed, abused. He is the veriest "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" of birds. +Exquisitely proportioned, with finely poised black head and satin-gray coat, +which he bathes most carefully and prunes and prinks by the hour, he appears +from his toilet a Beau Brummell, an aristocratic-looking, even dandified +neighbor. Suddenly, as if shot, he drops head and tail and assumes the most +hang-dog air, without the least sign of self-respect; then crouches and +lengthens into a roll, head forward and tail straightened, till he looks like +a little, short gray snake, lank and limp. Anon, with a jerk and a sprint, +every muscle tense, tail erect, eyes snapping, he darts into the air intent +upon some well-planned mischief. It is impossible to describe his various +attitudes or moods. In song and call he presents the same opposite +characteristics. How such a bird, exquisite in style, can demean himself to +utter such harsh, altogether hateful catcalls and squawks as have given the +bird his common name, is a wonder when in the next moment his throat swells +and beginning phut-phut-coquillicot, he gives forth a long glorious song, only +second to that of the wood thrush in melody. He is a jester, a caricaturist, a +mocking-bird. + +The catbird's nest is like a veritable scrap-basket, loosely woven of coarse +twigs, bits of newspaper, scraps, and rags, till this rough exterior is softly +lined and made fit to receive the four to six pretty dark green-blue eggs to +be laid therein. + +As a fruit thief harsh epithets are showered upon the friendly, confiding +little creature at our doors; but surely his depredations may be pardoned, for +he is industrious at all times and unusually adroit in catching insects, +especially in the moth stage. + + +THE MOCKING-BIRD (Mimus polyglottus) Mocking-bird family + +[Called also: NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin. +Male and Female -- Gray above; wings and wedge-shaped; tail + brownish; upper wing feathers tipped with white; outer tail + quills white, conspicuous in flight; chin white; underneath + light gray, shading to whitish. +Range -- Peculiar to torrid and temperate zones of two Americas. +Migrations -- No fixed migrations: usually resident where seen. + +North of Delaware this commonest of Southern birds is all too rarely seen +outside of cages, yet even in midwinter it is not unknown in Central Park, New +York. This is the angel that it is said the catbird was before he fell from +grace. Slim, neat, graceful, imitative, amusing, with a rich, tender song that +only the thrush can hope to rival, and with an instinctive preference for the +society of man, it is little wonder he is a favorite, caged or free. He is a +most devoted parent, too, when the four or six speckled green eggs have +produced as many mouths to be supplied with insects and berries. + +In the Connecticut Valley, where many mocking-birds' nests have been found, +year after year, they are all seen near the ground, and without exception are +loosely, poorly constructed affairs of leaves, feathers, grass, and even rags. + +With all his virtues, it must be added, however, that this charming bird is a +sad tease. 'There is no sound, whether made by bird or beast about him, that +he cannot imitate so clearly as to deceive every one but himself. Very rarely +can you find a mocking-bird without intelligence and mischief enough to +appreciate his ventriloquism. In Sidney Lanier's college note-book was found +written this reflection: "A poet is the mocking-bird of the spiritual +universe. In him are collected all the individual songs of all individual +natures." Later in life, with the same thought in mind, he referred to the +bird as "yon slim Shakespeare on the tree." His exquisite stanzas, "To Our +Mocking-bird," exalt the singer with the immortals: + + "Trillets of humor, -- shrewdest whistle -- wit -- + Contralto cadences of grave desire, + Such as from off the passionate Indian pyre + Drift down through sandal-odored flames that split + About the slim young widow, who doth sit + And sing above, -- midnights of tone entire, -- + Tissues of moonlight, shot with songs of fire; -- + Bright drops of tune, from oceans infinite + Of melody, sipped off the thin-edged wave + And trickling down the beak, -- discourses brave + Of serious matter that no man may guess, -- + Good-fellow greetings, cries of light distress -- + All these but now within the house we heard: + O Death, wast thou too deaf to hear the bird? + . . . . . + "Nay, Bird; my grief gainsays the Lord's best right. + The Lord was fain, at some late festal time, + That Keats should set all heaven's woods in rhyme, + And Thou in bird-notes. Lo, this tearful night + Methinks I see thee, fresh from Death's despite, + Perched in a palm-grove, wild with pantomime + O'er blissful companies couched in shady thyme. + Methinks I hear thy silver whistlings bright + Meet with the mighty discourse of the wise, -- + 'Till broad Beethoven, deaf no more, and Keats, + 'Midst of much talk, uplift their smiling eyes + And mark the music of thy wood-conceits, + And half-way pause on some large courteous word, + And call thee 'Brother,' O thou heavenly Bird!" + + +JUNCO (Junco hyemalis) Finch family + +Called also: SNOWBIRD; SLATE-COLORED SNOWBIRD; [DARK-EYED JUNCO, + AOU 1998] + +Length -- 5.5 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English + sparrow. +Male -- Upper parts slate-colored; darkest on head and neck, + which are sometimes almost black and marked like a cowl. Gray + on breast, like a vest. Underneath white. Several outer tall + feathers white, conspicuous in flight. +Female -- Lighter gray, inclining to brown. +Range -- North America. Not common in warm latitudes. Breeds in + the Catskills and northern New England. +Migrations -- September. April. Winter resident. + +"Leaden skies above; snow below," is Mr. Parkhurst's suggestive description of +this rather timid little neighbor, that is only starved into familiarity. When +the snow has buried seed and berries, a flock of juncos, mingling sociably +with the sparrows and chickadees about the kitchen door, will pick up scraps +of food with an intimacy quite touching in a bird naturally rather shy. Here +we can readily distinguish these "little gray-robed monks and nuns," as Miss +Florence Merriam calls them. + +They are trim, sprightly, sleek, and even natty; their dispositions are genial +and vivacious, not quarrelsome, like their sparrow cousins, and what is +perhaps best about them, they are birds we may surely depend upon seeing in +the winter months. A few come forth in September, migrating at night from the +deep woods of the north, where they have nested and moulted during the summer; +but not until frost has sharpened the air are large numbers of them seen. +Rejoicing in winter, they nevertheless do not revel in the deep and fierce +arctic blasts, as the snowflakes do, but take good care to avoid the open +pastures before the hard storms overtake them. + +Early in the spring their song is sometimes heard before they leave us to woo +and to nest in the north. Mr. Bicknell describes it as "a crisp call-note, a +simple trill, and a faint, whispered warble, usually much broken, but not +without sweetness." + + +WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH (Sitta carolinensis) Nuthatch family + +Called also: TREE-MOUSE; DEVIL DOWNHEAD + +Length -- 5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Upper parts slate-color. Top of head and nape + black. Wings dark slate, edged with black, that fades to brown. + Tail feathers brownish black, with white bars. Sides of head + and underneath white, shading to pale reddish under the tail. + (Female's head leaden.) Body flat and compact. Bill longer than + head. +Range -- British provinces to Mexico. Eastern United States. +Migrations -- October. April. Common resident. Most prominent in + winter. + + "Shrewd little haunter of woods all gray, + Whom I meet on my walk of a winter day -- + You're busy inspecting each cranny and hole + In the ragged bark of yon hickory bole; + You intent on your task, and I on the law + Of your wonderful head and gymnastic claw! + + The woodpecker well may despair of this feat -- + Only the fly with you can compete! + So much is clear; but I fain would know + How you can so reckless and fearless go, + Head upward, head downward, all one to you, + Zenith and nadir the same in your view?" + -- Edith M. Thomas. + +Could a dozen lines well contain a fuller description or more apt +characterization of a bird than these "To a Nuthatch"? + +With more artless inquisitiveness than fear, this lively little acrobat stops +his hammering or hatcheting at your approach, and stretching himself out from +the tree until it would seem he must fall off, he peers down at you, head +downward, straight into your upturned opera-glasses. If there is too much snow +on the upper side of a branch, watch how he runs along underneath it like a +fly, busily tapping the bark, or adroitly breaking the decayed bits with his +bill, as he searches for the spider's eggs, larvae, etc., hidden there; yet +somehow, between mouthfuls, managing to call out his cheery quank! quank! +hank! hank! + +Titmice and nuthatches, which have many similar characteristics, are often +seen in the most friendly hunting parties on the same tree. A pine woods is +their dearest delight. There, as the mercury goes down, their spirits only +seem to go up higher. In the spring they have been thought by many to migrate +in flocks, whereas they are only retreating with their relations away from the +haunts of men to the deep, cool woods, where they nest. With infinite patience +the nuthatch excavates a hole in a tree, lining it with feathers and moss, and +often depositing as many as ten white eggs speckled with red and lilac) for a +single brood. + + +RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH (Sitta canadensis) Nuthatch family + +Called also: CANADA NUTHATCH + +Length -- 4 to 4.75 inches. One-third smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Lead-colored above; brownish on wings and tail. Head, + neck, and stripe passing through eye to shoulder, black. + Frontlet, chin, and shoulders white; also a white stripe over + eye, meeting on brow. Under parts light, rusty red. Tail + feathers barred with white near end, and tipped with pale + brown. +Female -- Has crown of brownish black, and is lighter beneath + than male. +Range -- Northern parts of North America. Not often seen south of + the most northerly States. +Migrations -- November. April. Winter resident. + +The brighter coloring of this tiny, hardy bird distinguishes from the other +and larger nuthatch, with whom it is usually seen, for the winter birds have a +delightfully social manner, so that a colony of these Free masons is apt to +contain not only both kinds of nuthatches and chickadees, but kinglets and +brown creepers as well. It shares the family habit of walking about the trees, +head downward, and running along the under side of limbs like a fly. By +Thanksgiving Day the quank! quank! of the white-breasted species is answered +by the tai-tai-tait! of the red-breasted cousin in the orchard, where the +family party is celebrating with an elaborate menu of slugs, insects' eggs, +and oily seeds from the evergreen trees. + +For many years this nuthatch, a more northern species than the white-breasted +bird, was thought to be only a spring and autumn visitor, but latterly it is +credited with habits like its congener's in nearly every particular. + + +LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE (Lanius ludovicianus) Shrike family + +Length -- 8.5 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. +Male and Female -- Upper parts gray; narrow black line across + forehead, connecting small black patches on sides of head at + base of bill. Wings and tail black, plentifully marked with + white, the outer tail feathers often being entirely white and + conspicuous in flight. Underneath white or very light gray. + Bill hooked and hawk-like. +Range -- Eastern United States to the plains. +Migrations -- May. October. Summer resident. + +It is not easy, even at a slight distance, to distinguish the loggerhead from +the Northern shrike. Both have the pernicious habit of killing insects and +smaller birds and impaling them on thorns; both have the peculiarity of +flying, with strong, vigorous flight and much wing-flapping, close along the +ground, then suddenly rising to a tree, on the lookout for prey. Their harsh, +unmusical call-notes are similar too, and their hawk-like method of dropping +suddenly upon a victim on the ground below is identical. Indeed, the same +description very nearly answers for both birds. But there is one very +important difference. While the Northern shrike is a winter visitor, the +loggerhead, being his Southern counterpart, does not arrive until after the +frost is out of the ground, and he can be sure of a truly warm welcome. A +lesser distiction between the only two representatives of the shrike family +that frequent our neighborhood -- and they are two too many -- is in the +smaller size of the loggerhead and its lighter-gray plumage. But as both these +birds select some high commanding position, like a distended branch near the +tree-top, a cupola, house-peak, lightning-rod, telegraph wire, or +weather-vane, the better to detect a passing dinner, it would be quite +impossible at such a distance to know which shrike was sitting up there +silently plotting villainies, without remembering the season when each may be +expected. + + +NORTHERN SHRIKE (Lanius borealis) Shrike family + +Called also: BUTCHER-BIRD; NINE-KILLER + +Length -- 9.5 to 10.5 inches. About the size of the robin. +Male -- Upper parts slate-gray; wing quills and tail black, + edged and tipped with white, conspicuous in flight; a white + spot on centre of outer wing feathers. A black band runs + from bill, through eye to side of throat. Light gray below, + tinged with brownish, and faintly marked with waving lines + of darker gray. Bill hooked and hawk-like. +Female -- With eye-band more obscure than male's, and with + More distinct brownish cast on her plumage. +Range -- Northern North America. South in winter to middle + Portion of United States. +Migrations -- November, April. A roving winter resident. + +"Matching the bravest of the brave among birds of prey in deeds of daring, and +no less relentless than reckless, the shrike compels that sort of deference, +not unmixed with indignation, we are accustomed to accord to creatures of +seeming insignificance whose exploits demand much strength, great spirit, and +insatiate love for carnage. We cannot be indifferent to the marauder who takes +his own wherever he finds it -- a feudal baron who holds his own with +undisputed sway -- and an ogre whose victims are so many more than he can eat, +that he actually keeps a private graveyard for the balance." Who is honestly +able to give the shrikes a better character than Dr. Coues, just quoted? A few +offer them questionable defence by recording the large numbers of English +sparrows they kill in a season, as if wanton carnage were ever justifiable. + +Not even a hawk itself can produce the consternation among a flock of sparrows +that the harsh, rasping voice of the butcherbird creates, for escape they well +know to be difficult before the small ogre swoops down upon his victim, and +carries it off to impale it on a thorn or frozen twig, there to devour it +later piecemeal. Every shrike thus either impales or else hangs up, as a +butcher does his meat, more little birds of many kinds, field-mice, +grasshoppers, and other large insects than it can hope to devour in a week of +bloody orgies. Field-mice are perhaps its favorite diet, but even snakes are +not disdained. + +More contemptible than the actual slaughter of its victims, if possible, is +the method by which the shrike often lures and sneaks upon his prey. Hiding in +a clump of bushes in the meadow or garden, he imitates with fiendish +cleverness the call-notes of little birds that come in cheerful response, +hopping and flitting within easy range of him. His bloody work is finished in +a trice. Usually, however, it must be owned, the shrike's hunting habits are +the reverse of sneaking. Perched on a point of vantage on some tree-top or +weather-vane, his hawk-like eye can detect a grasshopper going through the +grass fifty yards away. + +What is our surprise when, some fine warm day in March, just before our +butcher, ogre, sneak, and fiend leaves us for colder regions, to hear him +break out into song! Love has warmed even his cold heart, and with sweet, +warbled notes on the tip of a beak that but yesterday was reeking with his +victim's blood, he starts for Canada, leaving behind him the only good +impression he has made during a long winter's visit. + + +BOHEMIAN WAXWING (Ampelis garrulus) Waxwing family + +Called also: BLACK-THROATED WAX WING; LAPLAND WAX WING; SILKTAIL + +Length -- 8 to 9.5 inches. A little smaller than the robin. +Male and Female -- General color drab, with faint brownish wash + above, shading into lighter gray below. Crest conspicuous. + being nearly an inch and a half in length; rufous at the base, + shading into light gray above, velvety-black forehead, chin, + and line through the eye. Wings grayish brown, with very dark + quills, which have two white bars; the bar at the edge of the + upper wing coverts being tipped with red sealing-wax-like + points, that give the bird its name. A few wing feathers tipped + with yellow on outer edge. Tail quills dark brown, with yellow + band across the end, and faint red streaks on upper and inner + sides. +Range -- Northern United States and British America. Most common + in Canada and northern Mississippi region. +Migrations -- Very irregular winter visitor. + +When Charles Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, who was the first to count this +common waxwing of Europe and Asia among the birds of North America, published +an account of it in his "Synopsis," it was considered a very rare bird indeed. +It may be these waxwings have greatly increased, but however uncommon they may +still be considered, certainly no one who had ever seen a flock containing +more than a thousand of them, resting on the trees of a lawn within sight of +New York City, as the writer has done, could be expected to consider the birds +"very rare." + +The Bohemian waxwing, like the only other member of the family that ever +visits us, the cedar-bird, is a roving gipsy. In Germany they say seven years +must elapse between its visitations, which the superstitious old cronies are +wont to associate with woful stories of pestilence -- just such tales as are +resurrected from the depths of morbid memories here when a comet reappears or +the seven-year locust ascends from the ground. + +The goings and comings of these birds are certainly most erratic and +infrequent; nevertheless, when hunger drives them from the far north to feast +upon the juniper and other winter berries of our Northern States, they come in +enormous flocks, making up in quantity what they lack in regularity of visits +and evenness of distribution. + +Surely no bird has less right to be associated with evil than this mild +waxwing. It seems the very incarnation of peace and harmony. Part of a flock +that has lodged in a tree will sit almost motionless for hours and whisper in +softly hissed twitterings, very much as a company of Quaker ladies, similarly +dressed, might sit at yearly meeting. Exquisitely clothed in silky-gray +feathers that no berry juice is ever permitted to stain, they are dainty, +gentle, aristocratic-looking birds, a trifle heavy and indolent, perhaps, when +walking on the ground or perching; but as they fly in compact squads just +above the tree-tops their flight is exceedingly swift and graceful. + + +BAY-BREASTED WARBLER (Dendroica castanea) Wood Warbler family + +Length. -- 5.25 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Crown, chin, throat, upper breast, and sides dull + chestnut. Forehead, sides of head, and cheeks black. Above + olive-gray, streaked with black. Underneath buffy. Two white + wing-bars. Outer tail quills with white patches on tips. Cream + white patch on either side of neck. +Female -- Has more greenish-olive above. +Range -- Eastern North America, from Hudson's Bay to Central + America. Nests north of the United States. Winters in tropical + limit of range. +Migrations -- May. September. Rare migrant + +The chestnut breast of this capricious little visitor makes him look like a +diminutive robin. In spring, when these warblers are said to take a more +easterly route than the one they choose in autumn to return by to Central +America, they may be so suddenly abundant that the fresh green trees and +shrubbery of the garden will contain a dozen of the busy little hunters. +Another season they may pass northward either by another route or leave your +garden unvisited; and perhaps the people in the very next town may be counting +your rare bird common, while it is simply perverse. + +Whether common or rare, before your acquaintance has had time to ripen into +friendship, away go the freaky little creatures to nest in the tree-tops of +the Canadian coniferous forests. + + +CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER (Dendroica pennsylvanica) Wood Warbler +family + +Called also: BLOODY-SIDED WARBLER + +Length -- About 5 inches. More than an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. +Male -- Top of head and streaks in wings yellow. A black line + running through the eye and round back of crown, and a black + spot in front of eye, extending to cheeks. Ear coverts, chin, + and underneath white. Back greenish gray and slate, streaked + with black. Sides of bird chestnut. Wings, which are streaked + with black and yellow, have yellowish-white bars. Very dark + tail with white patches on inner vanes of the outer quills. +Female -- Similar, but duller. Chestnut sides are often scarcely + apparent. +Range -- Eastern North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to the + tropics, where it winters. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident, most common in + migrations. + +In the Alleghanies, and from New Jersey and Illinois northward, this restless +little warbler nests in the bushy borders of woodlands and the undergrowth of +the woods, for which he forsakes our gardens and orchards after a very short +visit in May. While hopping over the ground catching ants, of which he seems +to be inordinately fond, or flitting actively about the shrubbery after grubs +and insects, we may note his coat of many colors +-- patchwork in which nearly all the warbler colors are curiously combined. +With drooped wings that often conceal the bird's chestnut sides, which are his +chief distinguishing mark, and with tail erected like a redstart's, he hunts +incessantly. Here in the garden he is as refreshingly indifferent to your +interest in him as later in his breeding haunts he is shy and distrustful. His +song is bright and animated, like that of the yellow warbler. + + +GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER (Helminthophila chrysoptera) Wood Warbler +family + +Length -- About 5 inches. More than an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. +Male -- Yellow crown and yellow patches on the wings. Upper parts + bluish gray, sometimes tinged with greenish. Stripe through the + eye and throat black. Sides of head chin, and line over the eye + white. Underneath white, grayish on sides. A few white markings + on outer tail feathers. +Female -- Crown duller; gray where male is black, with olive + Upper parts and grayer underneath. +Range -- From Canadian border to Central America, where it + winters. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +After one has seen a golden-winged warbler fluttering hither and thither about +the shrubbery of a park within sight and sound of a great city's distractions +and with blissful unconcern of them all, partaking of a hearty lunch of +insects that infest the leaves before one's eyes, one counts the bird less +rare and shy than one has been taught to consider it. Whoever looks for a +warbler with gaudy yellow wings will not find the golden-winged variety. His +wings have golden patches only, and while these are distinguishing marks, they +are scarcely prominent enough features to have given the bird the rather +misleading name he bears. But, then, most warblers' names are misleading. They +serve their best purpose in cultivating patience and other gentle virtues in +the novice. + +Such habits and choice of haunts as characterize the blue-winged warbler are +also the golden-winged's. But their voices are quite different, the former's +being sharp and metallic, while the latter's zee, zee, zee comes more lazily +and without accent. + + +MYRTLE WARBLER (Dendroica coronata) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER [AOU 1998]; MYRTLE BIRD; + YELLOW-CROWNED WARBLER + +Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- In summer plumage: A yellow patch on top of head, lower + back, and either side of the breast. Upper parts bluish slate, + streaked with black. Upper breast black; throat white; all + other under parts whitish, streaked with black. Two white wing + bars, and tail quills have white spots near the tip. In winter: + Upper parts olive-brown, streaked with black; the yellow spot + on lower back the only yellow mark remaining. Wing-bars + grayish. +Female -- Resembles male in winter plumage. +Range -- Eastern North America. Occasional on Pacific slope. + Summers from Minnesota and northern New England northward to + Fur Countries. Winters from Middle States south ward into + Central America; a few often remaining at the northern United + States all the winter. +Migrations -- April. October. November. Also, but more rarely, a + winter resident. + +The first of the warblers to arrive in the spring and the last to leave us in +the autumn, some even remaining throughout the northern winter, the myrtle +warbler, next to the summer yellowbird, is the most familiar of its +multitudinous kin. Though we become acquainted with it chiefly in the +migrations, it impresses us by its numbers rather than by any gorgeousness of +attire. The four yellow spots on crown, lower back, and sides are its +distinguishing marks; and in the autumn these marks have dwindled to only one, +that on the lower back or rump. The great difficulty experienced in +identifying any warbler is in its restless habit of flitting about. + +For a few days in early May we are forcibly reminded of the Florida peninsula, +which fairly teems with these birds; they become almost superabundant, a +distraction during the precious days when the rarer species are quietly +slipping by, not to return again for a year, perhaps longer, for some warblers +are notoriously irregular in their routes north and south, and never return by +the way they travelled in the spring. + +But if we look sharply into every group of myrtle warblers, we are quite +likely to discover some of their dainty, fragile cousins that gladly seek the +escort of birds so fearless as they. By the last of May all the warblers are +gone from the neighborhood except the constant little summer yellowbird and +redstart. + +In autumn, when the myrtle warblers return after a busy enough summer passed +in Canadian nurseries, they chiefly haunt those regions where juniper and +bay-berries abound. These latter (Myrica cerifera), or the myrtle wax-berries, +as they are sometimes called, and which are the bird's favorite food, have +given it their name. Wherever the supply of these berries is sufficient to +last through the winter, there it may be found foraging in the scrubby bushes. +Sometimes driven by cold and hunger from the fields, this hardiest member of a +family that properly belongs to the tropics, seeks shelter and food close to +the outbuildings on the farm. + + +PARULA WARBLER (Compsothlypis americana) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WARBLER; [NORTHERN PARULA, AOU + 1998] +Length -- 4.5 to 4.75 inches. About an inch and a half shorter + than the English sparrow. +Male and Female -- Slate-colored above, with a greenish-yellow or + bronze patch in the middle of the back. Chin, throat, and + breast yellow. A black, bluish, or rufous band across the + breast, usually lacking in female. Underneath white, sometimes + marked with rufous on sides, but these markings are variable. + Wings have two white patches; outer tail feathers have white + patch near the end. +Range -- Eastern North America. Winters from Florida southward. +Migrations -- April. October. Summer resident. + +Through an open window of an apartment in the very heart of New York City, a +parula warbler flew this spring of 1897, surely the daintiest, most +exquisitely beautiful bird visitor that ever voluntarily lodged between two +brick walls. + +A number of such airy, tiny beauties flitting about among the blossoms of the +shrubbery on a bright May morning and swaying on the slenderest branches with +their inimitable grace, is a sight that the memory should retain into old age. +They seem the very embodiment of life, joy, beauty, grace; of everything +lovely that birds by any possibility could be. Apparently they are wafted +about the garden; they fly with no more effort than a dainty lifting of the +wings, as if to catch the breeze, that seems to lift them as it might a bunch +of thistledown. They go through a great variety of charming posturings as they +hunt for their food upon the blossoms and tender fresh twigs, now creeping +like a nuthatch along the bark and peering into the crevices, now gracefully +swaying and balancing like a goldfinch upon a slender, pendent stem. One +little sprite pauses in its hunt for the insects to raise its pretty head and +trill a short and wiry song. + +But the parula warbler does not remain long about the gardens and orchards, +though it will not forsake us altogether for the Canadian forests, where most +of its relatives pass the summer. It retreats only to the woods near the +water, if may be, or to just as close a counterpart of a swampy southern +woods, where the Spanish or Usnea "moss" drapes itself over the cypresses, as +it can find here at the north. Its rarely [found,] beautiful nest, that hangs +suspended from a slender branch very much like the Baltimore oriole's, is so +woven and festooned with this moss that its concealment is perfect. + + +BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER (Dendroica caerulescens) Wood Warbler +family + +Length -- 5.30 inches. About an inch shorter than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Slate-color, not blue above; lightest on forehead and + darkest on lower back. Wings and tail edged with bluish. + Cheeks, chin, throat, upper breast, and sides black. Breast and + underneath white. White spots on wings, and a little white on + tail. +Female -- Olive-green above; underneath soiled yellow. Wing-spots + inconspicuous. Tail generally has a faint bluish tinge. +Range -- Eastern North America, from Labrador to tropics, where + It winters. +Migrations -- May. September. Usually a migrant only in the + United States. + +Whoever looks for this beautifully marked warbler among the bluebirds, will +wish that the man who named him had possessed a truer eye for color. But if +the name so illy fits the bright slate-colored male, how grieved must be his +little +olive-and-yellow mate to answer to the name of black-throated blue warbler +when she has neither a black throat nor a blue feather! It is not easy to +distinguish her as she flits about the twigs and leaves of the garden in May +or early autumn, except as she is seen in company with her husband, whose name +she has taken with him for better or for worse. The white spot on the wings +should always be looked for to positively identify this bird. + +Before flying up to a twig to peck off the insects, the birds have a pretty +vireo trick of cocking their heads on one side to investigate the quantity +hidden underneath the leaves. They seem less nervous and more deliberate than +many of their restless family. + +Most warblers go over the Canada border to nest, but there are many records of +the nests of this species in the Alleghanies as far south as Georgia, in the +Catskills, in Connecticut, northern Minnesota and Michigan. Laurel thickets +and moist undergrowth of woods in the United States, and more commonly pine +woods in Canada, are the favorite nesting haunts. A sharp zip, zip, like some +midsummer insect's noise, is the bird's call-note, but its love-song, zee, +zee, zee, or twee, twea, twea-e-e, as one authority writes it, is only rarely +heard in the migrations. It is a languid, drawling little strain, with an +upward slide that is easily drowned in the full bird chorus of May. + + +BLUE AND BLUISH BIRDS + + Bluebird + Indigo Bunting + Belted Kingfisher + Blue Jay + Blue Grosbeak + Barn Swallow + Cliff Swallow + Mourning Dove + Blue-gray Gnatcatcher + +Look also among Slate-colored Birds in preceding group, particularly among the +Warblers there, or in the group of Birds conspicuously Yellow and Orange. + +BLUE AND BLUISH BIRDS + + +THE BLUEBIRD (Sialia sialis) Thrush family + +Called also: BLUE ROBIN; [EASTERN BLUEBIRD, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 7 inches. About an inch longer than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Upper parts, wings, and tail bright blue, with rusty wash + in autumn. Throat, breast, and sides cinnamon-red. Underneath + white. +Female -- Has duller blue feathers, washed with gray, and a paler + breast than male. +Range -- North America, from Nova Scotia. and Manitoba to Gulf of + Mexico. Southward in winter from Middle States to Bermuda and + West Indies. +Migrations -- March. November. Summer resident. A few sometimes + remain throughout the winter. + +With the first soft, plaintive warble of the bluebirds early in March, the +sugar camps, waiting for their signal, take on a bustling activity; the farmer +looks to his plough; orders are hurried off to the seedsmen; a fever to be out +of doors seizes one: spring is here. Snowstorms may yet whiten fields and +gardens, high winds may howl about the trees and chimneys, but the little blue +heralds persistently proclaim from the orchard and garden that the spring +procession has begun to move.Tru-al-ly, tru-al-ly, they sweetly assert to our +incredulous ears. + +The bluebird is not always a migrant, except in the more northern portions of +the country. Some representatives there are always with us, but the great +majority winter south and drop out of the spring procession on its way +northward, the males a little ahead of their mates, which show housewifely +instincts immediately after their arrival. A pair of these rather +undemonstrative +matter-of-fact lovers go about looking for some deserted woodpecker's hole in +the orchard, peering into cavities in the fence-rails, or into the bird-houses +that, once set up in the +old-fashioned gardens for their special benefit, are now appropriated too +often by the ubiquitous sparrow. Wrens they can readily dispossess of an +attractive tenement, and do. With a temper as heavenly as the color of their +feathers, the bluebird's sense of justice is not always so adorable. But +sparrows unnerve them into cowardice. The comparatively infrequent nesting of +the bluebirds about our homes at the present time is one of the most +deplorable results of unrestricted sparrow immigration. Formerly they were the +commonest of bird neighbors. + +Nest-building is not a favorite occupation with the bluebirds, that are +conspicuously domestic none the less. Two, and even three, broods in a season +fully occupy their time. As in most cases, the mother-bird does more than her +share of the work. The male looks with wondering admiration at the housewifely +activity, applauds her with song, feeds her as she sits brooding over the +nestful of pale greenish-blue eggs, but his adoration of her virtues does not +lead him into emulation. + + "Shifting his light load of song, + From post to post along the cheerless fence," + +Lowell observed that he carried his duties quite as lightly. + +When the young birds first emerge from the shell they are almost black; they +come into their splendid heritage of color by degrees, lest their young heads +might be turned. It is only as they spread their tiny wings for their first +flight from the nest that we can see a few blue feathers. + +With the first cool days of autumn the bluebirds collect in flocks, often +associating with orioles and kingbirds in sheltered, sunny places where +insects are still plentiful. Their steady, undulating flight now becomes +erratic as they take food on the wing -- a habit that they may have learned by +association with the kingbirds, for they have also adopted the habit of +perching upon some conspicuous lookout and then suddenly launching out into +the air for a passing fly and returning to their perch. Long after their +associates have gone southward, they linger like the last leaves on the tree. +It is indeed "good-bye to summer" when the bluebirds withdraw their touch of +brightness from the dreary November landscape. + +The bluebirds from Canada and the northern portions of New England and New +York migrate into Virginia and the Carolinas, the birds from the Middle States +move down into the Gulf States to pass the winter. It was there that countless +numbers were cut off by the severe winter of 1894-95, which was so severe in +that section. + + +INDIGO BUNTING (Passerina cyanea) Finch family + +Called also: INDIGO BIRD + +Length -- 5 to 6 inches. Smaller than the English sparrow, or the + size of a canary. +Male -- In certain lights rich blue, deepest on head. In another + light the blue feathers show verdigris tints. Wings, tail, and + lower back with brownish wash, most prominent in autumn + plumage. Quills of wings and tail deep blue, margined with + light. +Female -- Plain sienna-brown above. Yellowish on breast and + shading to white underneath, and indistinctly streaked. Wings + and tail darkest, sometimes with slight tinge of blue in outer + webs and on shoulders. +Range -- North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Most common in + eastern part of United States. Winters in Central America and + Mexico. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +The "glowing indigo" of this tropical-looking visitor that so delighted +Thoreau in the Walden woods, often seems only the more intense by comparison +with the blue sky, against which it stands out in relief as the bird perches +singing in a tree-top. What has this gaily dressed, dapper little cavalier in +common with his dingy sparrow cousins that haunt the ground and delight in +dust-baths, leaving their feathers no whit more dingy than they were before, +and in temper, as in plumage, suggesting more of earth than of heaven? +Apparently he has nothing, and yet the small brown bird in the roadside +thicket, which you have misnamed a sparrow, not noticing the glint of blue in +her shoulders and tail, is his mate. Besides the structural resemblances, +which are, of course, the only ones considered by ornithologists in +classifying birds, the indigo buntings have several sparrowlike traits. They +feed upon the ground, mainly upon seeds of grasses and herbs, with a few +insects interspersed to give relish to the grain; they build grassy nests in +low bushes or tall, rank grass; and their flight is short and labored. Borders +of woods, roadside thickets, and even garden shrubbery, with open pasture lots +for foraging grounds near by, are favorite haunts of these birds, that return +again and again to some preferred spot. But however close to our homes they +build theirs, our presence never ceases to be regarded by them with anything +but suspicion, not to say alarm. Their metallic cheep, cheep, warns you to +keep away from the little blue-white eggs, hidden away securely in the bushes; +and the nervous tail twitchings and jerkings are pathetic to see. Happily for +the safety of their nest, the brooding mother has no tell-tale feathers to +attract the eye. Dense foliage no more conceals the male bird's brilliant coat +than it can the tanager's or oriole's. + +With no attempt at concealment, which he doubtless understands would be quite +impossible, he chooses some high, conspicuous perch to which he mounts by easy +stages, singing as he goes; and there begins a loud and rapid strain that +promises much, but growing weaker and weaker, ends as if the bird were either +out of breath or too, weak to finish. Then suddenly he begins the same song +over again, and keeps up this continuous performance for nearly half an hour. +The noonday heat of an August day that silences nearly every other voice, +seems to give to the indigo bird's only fresh animation and timbre. + + +THE BELTED KINGFISHER (Ceryle alcyon) Kingfisher family + +Called also: THE HALCYON + +Length -- 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the + robin. +Male -- Upper part grayish blue, with prominent crest on head + reaching to the nape. A white spot in front of the eye. Bill + longer than the head, which is large and heavy. Wings and the + short tail minutely speckled and marked with broken bands of + white. Chin, band around throat, and underneath white. Two + bluish bands across the breast and a bluish wash on sides. +Female -- Female and immature specimens have rufous bands where + The adult male's are blue. Plumage of both birds oily. +Range -- North America, except where the Texan kingfisher + replaces it in a limited area in the Southwest. Common from + Labrador to Florida, east and west. Winters chiefly from + Virginia southward to South America. +Migrations -- March. December. Common summer resident. Usually a + winter resident also. + +If the kingfisher is not so neighborly as we could wish, or as he used to be, +it is not because he has grown less friendly, but because the streams near our +homes are fished out. Fish he must and will have, and to get them nowadays it +is too often necessary to follow the stream back through secluded woods to the +quiet waters of its source: a clear, cool pond or lake whose scaly inmates +have not yet learned wisdom at the point of the sportsman's fly. + +In such quiet haunts the kingfisher is easily the most conspicuous object in +sight, where he perches on some dead or projecting branch over the water, +intently watching for a dinner that is all unsuspectingly swimming below. +Suddenly the bird drops -- dives; there is a splash, a struggle, and then the +"lone fisherman" returns triumphant to his perch, holding a shining fish in +his beak. If the fish is small it is swallowed at once, but if it is large and +bony it must first be killed against the branch. A few sharp knocks, and the +struggles of the fish are over, but the kingfisher's have only begun. How he +gags and writhes, swallows his dinner, and then, regretting his haste, brings +it up again to try another wider avenue down his throat I The many abortive +efforts he makes to land his dinner safely below in his stomach, his grim +contortions as the fishbones scratch his throat-lining on their way down and +up again, force a smile in spite of the bird's evident distress. It is small +wonder he supplements his fish diet with various kinds of the larger insects, +shrimps, and fresh-water mollusks. + +Flying well over the tree-tops or along the waterways. the kingfisher makes +the woodland echo with his noisy rattle, that breaks the stillness like a +watchman's at midnight. It is, perhaps, the most familiar sound heard along +the banks of the inland rivers. No love or cradle song does he know. Instead +of softening and growing sweet, as the voices of most birds do in the nesting +season, the endearments uttered by a pair of mated kingfishers are the most +strident, rattly shrieks ever heard by lovers it sounds as if they were +perpetually quarrelling, yet they are really particularly devoted. + +The nest of these birds, like the bank swallow's, is excavated in the face of +a high bank, preferably one that rises from a stream; and at about six feet +from the entrance of the tunnel six or eight clear, shining white eggs are +placed on a curious nest. All the fish bones and scales that, being +indigestible, are disgorged in pellets by the parents, are carefully carried +to the end of the tunnel to form a prickly cradle for the unhappy fledglings. +Very rarely a nest is made in the hollow trunk of a tree; but wherever the +home is, the kingfishers become strongly attached to it, returning again and +again to the spot that has cost them so much labor to excavate. Some observers +have accused them of appropriating the holes of the water-rats. + +In ancient times of myths and fables, kingfishers or halcyons were said to +build a floating nest on the sea, and to possess some mysterious power that +calmed the troubled waves while the eggs were hatching and the young birds +were being reared, hence the term "halcyon days," meaning days of fair +weather. + + +BLUE JAY (Cyanocitta cristata) Crow and Jay family + +Length -- 11 to 12 inches. A little larger than the robin. + +Male and Female -- Blue above. Black band around the neck, + joining some black feathers on the back. Under parts dusky + white. Wing coverts and tail bright blue, striped transversely + with black. Tail much rounded. Many feathers edged and tipped + with white. Head finely crested; bill, tongue, and legs black. +Range -- Eastern coast of North America to the plains, and from + northern Canada to Florida and eastern Texas. +Migrations -- Permanent resident. Although seen in flocks moving + southward or northward, they are merely seeking happier hunting + grounds, not migrating. + +No bird of finer color or presence sojourns with us the year round than the +blue jay. In a peculiar sense his is a case o. "beauty covering a multitude of +sins." Among close students of bird traits, we find none so poor as to do him +reverence. Dishonest, cruel, inquisitive, murderous, voracious, villainous, +are some of the epithets applied to this bird of exquisite plumage. Emerson, +however, has said in his defence he does "more good than harm," alluding, no +doubt, to his habit of burying nuts and hard seeds in the ground, so that many +a waste place is clothed with trees and shrubs, thanks to his propensity and +industry. + +He is mischievous as a small boy, destructive as a monkey, deft at hiding as a +squirrel. He is unsociable and unamiable, disliking the society of other +birds. His harsh screams, shrieks, and most aggressive and unmusical calls +seem often intended maliciously to drown the songs of the sweet-voiced +singers. + +From April to September, the breeding and moulting season, the blue jays are +almost silent, only sallying forth from the woods to pillage and devour the +young and eggs of their more peaceful neighbors. In a bulky nest, usually +placed in a tree-crotch high above our heads, from four to six eggs, +olive-gray with brown spots, are laid and most carefully tended. + +Notwithstanding the unlovely characteristics of the blue jay, we could ill +spare the flash of color, like a bit of blue sky dropped from above, which is +so rare a tint even in our land, that we number not more than three or four +true blue birds, and in England, it is said, there is none. + + +BLUE GROSBEAK (Guiraca carulea) Finch family + +Length -- 7 inches. About an inch larger than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Deep blue, dark, and almost black on the back; wings and + tail black, slightly edged with blue, and the former marked + with bright chestnut. Cheeks and chin black. Bill heavy and + bluish. +Female -- Grayish brown above, sometimes with bluish tinge on + head, lower back, and shoulders. Wings dark olive-brown, with + faint buff markings; tail same shade as wings, but witb bluish + gray markings. Underneath brownish cream-color, the breast + feathers often blue at the base. +Range -- United States, from southern New England westward to the + Rocky Mountains and southward into Mexico and beyon d.M ost + common in the Southwest. Rare along the Atlantic seaboard. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +This beautiful but rather shy and solitary bird occasionally wanders eastward +to rival the bluebird and the indigo bunting in their rare and lovely +coloring, and eclipse them both in song. Audubon, we remember, found the nest +in New Jersey. Pennsylvania is still favored with one now and then, but it is +in the Southwest only that the blue grosbeak is as common as the evening +grosbeak is in the Northwest. Since rice is its favorite food, it naturally +abounds where that cereal grows. Seeds and kernels of the hardest kinds, that +its heavy, strong beak is well adapted to crack, constitute its diet when it +strays beyond the rice-fields. + +Possibly the heavy bills of all the grosbeaks make them look stupid whether +they are or not -- a characteristic that the blue grosbeak's habit of sitting +motionless with a vacant stare many minutes at a time unfortunately +emphasizes. + +When seen in the roadside thickets or tall weeds, such as the field sparrow +chooses to frequent, it shows little fear of man unless actually approached +and threatened, but whether this fearlessness comes from actual confidence or +stupidity is by no means certain. Whatever the motive of its inactivity, it +accomplishes an end to be desired by the cleverest bird; its presence is +almost never suspected by the passer-by, and its grassy nest on a tree-branch, +containing three or four pale bluish-white eggs, is never betrayed by look or +sign to the marauding small boy. + + +BARN SWALLOW (Chelidon erythrogaster) Swallow family + +Length -- 6.5 to 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English + sparrow. Apparently considerably larger, because of its wide + wingspread. +Male -- Glistening steel-blue shading to black above. Chin, + breast, and underneath bright chestnut-brown and brilliant buff + that glistens in the sunlight. A partial collar of steel-blue. + Tail very deeply forked and slender. +Female -- Smaller and paler, with shorter outer tail feathers, + making the fork less prominent. +Range -- Throughout North America. Winters in tropics of both + Americas. +Migrations -- April. September. Summer resident. + +Any one who attempts to describe the coloring of a bird's plumage knows how +inadequate words are to convey a just idea of the delicacy, richness, and +brilliancy of the living tints. But, happily, the beautiful barn swallow is +too familiar to need description. Wheeling about our barns and houses, +skimming over the fields, its bright sides flashing in the sunlight, playing +"cross tag" with its friends at evening, when the insects, too, are on the +wing, gyrating, darting, and gliding through the air, it is no more possible +to adequately describe the exquisite grace of a swallow's flight than the +glistening buff of its breast. + +This is a typical bird of the air, as an oriole is of the trees and a sparrow +of the ground. Though the swallow may often be seen perching on a telegraph +wire, suddenly it darts off as if it had received a shock of electricity, and +we see the bird in its true element. + +While this swallow is peculiarly American, it is often confounded with its +European cousin Hirundo rustica in noted ornithologies. + +Up in the rafters of the barn, or in the arch of an old bridge that spans a +stream, these swallows build their bracket-like nests of clay or mud pellets +intermixed with straw. Here the noisy little broods pick their way out of the +white eggs curiously spotted with brown and lilac that were all too familiar +in the marauding days of our childhood. + + +CLIFF SWALLOW (Petrochelidon lunifrons) Swallow family + +Called also: EAVE SWALLOW; CRESCENT SWALLOW; ROCKY MOUNTAIN + SWALLOW + +Length -- 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. + Apparently considerably larger because of its wide wingspread. +Male and Female -- Steel-blue above, shading to blue-black on + crown of head and on wings and tail. A brownish-gray ring + around the neck. Beneath dusty white, with rufous tint. + Crescent-like frontlet. Chin, throat, sides of head, and tail + coverts rufous. +Range -- North and South America. Winters in the tropics. +Migrations -- Early April. Late September. Summer resident. + +Not quite so brilliantly colored as the barn swallow, nor with tail so deeply +forked, and consequently without so much grace in flying, and with a squeak +rather than the really musical twitter of the gayer bird, the cliff swallow +may be positively identified by the rufous feathers of its tail coverts, but +more definitely by its crescent-shaped frontlet shining like a new moon; hence +its specific Latin name from luna = moon, and frons = front. + +Such great numbers of these swallows have been seen in the far West that the +name of Rocky Mountain swallows is sometimes given to them; though however +rare they may have been in 1824, when DeWitt Clinton thought he "discovered" +them near Lake Champlain, they are now common enough in all parts of the +United States. + +In the West this swallow is wholly a cliff-dweller, but it has learned to +modify its home in different localities. As usually seen, it is gourd-shaped, +opened at the top, built entirely of mud pellets ("bricks without straw"), +softly lined with feathers and wisps of grass, and attached by the larger part +to a projecting cliff or eave. + +Like all the swallows, this bird lives in colonies, and the clay-colored nests +beneath the eaves of barns are often so close together that a group of them +resembles nothing so much as a gigantic wasp's nest. It is said that when +swallows pair they are mated for life; but, then, more is said about swallows +than the most tireless bird-lover could substantiate. The tradition that +swallows fly low when it is going to rain may be easily credited, because the +air before a storm is usually too heavy with moisture for the winged insects, +upon which the swallows feed, to fly high. + + +MOURNING DOVE (Zenaidura macroura) Pigeon family + +Called also: CAROLINA DOVE; TURTLE DOVE + +Length -- 12 to 13 inches. About one-half as large again as the + robin. +Male -- Grayish brown or fawn-color above, varying to bluish + gray. Crown and upper part of head greenish blue, with green + and golden metallic reflections on sides of neck. A black spot + under each ear. Forehead and breast reddish buff; lighter + underneath. (General impression of color, bluish fawn.) Bill + black, with tumid, fleshy covering; feet red; two middle tail + feathers longest; all others banded with black and tipped with + ashy white. Wing coverts sparsely spotted with black. Flanks + and underneath the wings bluish. +Female -- Duller and without iridescent reflections on neck. +Range -- North America, from Quebec to Panama, and westward to + Arizona. Most common in temperate climate, east of Rocky + Mountains. +Migrations -- March. November. Common summer resident not + Migratory south of Virginia. + +The beautiful, soft-colored plumage of this incessant and rather melancholy +love-maker is not on public exhibition. To see it we must trace the a-coo-o, +coo-o, coo-oo, coo-o to its source in the thick foliage in some tree in an +out-of-the-way corner of the farm, or to an evergreen near the edge of the +woods. The slow, plaintive notes, more like a dirge than a love-song, +penetrate to a surprising distance. They may not always be the same lovers we +hear from April to the end of summer, but surely the sound seems to indicate +that they are. The dove is a shy bird, attached to its gentle and refined mate +with a devotion that has passed into a proverb, but caring little or nothing +for the society of other feathered friends, and very little for its own kind, +unless after the nesting season has passed. In this respect it differs widely +from its cousins, the wild pigeons, flocks of which, numbering many millions, +are recorded by Wilson and other early writers before the days when netting +these birds became so fatally profitable. + +What the dove finds to adore so ardently in the "shiftless housewife," as Mrs. +Wright calls his lady-love, must pass the comprehension of the phoebe, that +constructs such an exquisite home, or of a bustling, energetic Jenny wren, +that "looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of +idleness." She is a flabby, spineless bundle of flesh and pretty feathers, +gentle and refined in manners, but slack and incompetent in all she does. Her +nest consists of few loose sticks. without rim or lining; and when her two +babies emerge from the white eggs, that somehow do not fall through or roll +out of the rickety lattice, their tender little naked bodies must suffer from +many bruises. We are almost inclined to blame the inconsiderate mother for +allowing her offspring to enter the world unclothed -- obviously not her +fault, though she is capable of just such negligence. Fortunate are the baby +doves when their lazy mother scatters her makeshift nest on top of one that a +robin has deserted, as she frequently does. It is almost excusable to take her +young birds and rear them in captivity, where they invariably thrive, mate, +and live happily, unless death comes to one, when the other often refuses food +and grieves its life away. + +In the wild state, when the nesting season approaches, both birds make curious +acrobatic flights above the tree-tops; then, after a short sail in midair, +they return to their perch. This appears to be their only giddiness and +frivolity, unless a dust-bath in the country road might be considered a +dissipation. + +In the autumn a few pairs of doves show slight gregarious tendencies, feeding +amiably together in the grain fields and retiring to the same roost at +sundown. + + +BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER (Polioptila coerulea) Gnatcatcher family + +Called also: SYLVAN FLYCATCHER + +Length -- 4.5 inches. About two inches smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Grayish blue above, dull grayish white below. Grayish + tips on wings. Tail with white outer quills changing gradually + through black and white to all black on centre quills. Narrow + black band over the forehead and eyes. Resembles in manner and + form a miniature catbird. +Female -- More grayish and less blue, and without the black on + head. +Range -- United States to Canadian border on the north, the + Rockies on the west, and the Atlantic States, from Maine to + Florida most common in the Middle States. A rare bird north of + New Jersey. Winters in Mexico and beyond. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +In thick woodlands, where a stream that lazily creeps through the mossy, oozy +ground attracts myriads of insects to its humid neighborhood, this tiny hunter +loves to hide in the denser foliage of the upper branches. He has the habit of +nervously flitting about from twig to twig of his relatives, the kinglets, but +unhappily he lacks their social, friendly instincts, and therefore is rarely +seen. Formerly classed among the warblers, then among the flycatchers, while +still as much a lover of flies, gnats, and mosquitoes as ever, his vocal +powers have now won for him recognition among the singing birds. Some one has +likened his voice to the squeak of a mouse, and Nuttall says it is "scarcely +louder," which is all too true, for at a little distance it is quite +inaudible. But in addition to the mouse-like call-note, the tiny bird has a +rather feeble but exquisitely finished song, so faint it seems almost as it +the bird were singing in its sleep. + +If by accident you enter the neighborhood of its nest, you soon find out that +this timid, soft-voiced little creature can be roused to rashness and make its +presence disagreeable to ears and eyes alike as it angrily darts about your +unoffending head, pecking at your face and uttering its shrill squeak close to +your very ear-drums. All this excitement is in defence of a dainty, +lichen-covered nest, whose presence you may not have even suspected before, +and of four or five bluish-white, speckled eggs well beyond reach in the +tree-tops. + +During the migrations the bird seems not unwilling to show its delicate, trim +little body, that has often been likened to a diminutive mocking-bird's, very +near the homes of men. Its graceful postures, its song and constant motion, +are sure to attract attention. In Central Park, New York City, the bird is not +unknown. + + + +BROWN, OLIVE OR GRAYISH BROWN, AND BROWN AND GRAY SPARROWY BIRDS + +House Wren Yellow-billed Cuckoo +Carolina Wren Bank Swallow and +Winter Wren Rough-winged Swallow +Long-billed Marsh Wren Cedar Bird +Short-billed Marsh Wren Brown Creeper +Brown Thrasher Pine Siskin +Wilson's Thrush or Veery Smith's Painted Longspur +Wood Thrush Lapland Longspur +Hermit Thrush Chipping Sparrow +Alice's Thrush English Sparrow +Olive-backed Thrush Field Sparrow +Louisiana Water Thrush Fox Sparrow +Northern Water Thrush Grasshopper Sparrow +Flicker Savannah Sparrow +Meadowlark and Western Seaside Sparrow + Meadowlark Sharp-tailed Sparrow +Horned Lark and Prairie Song Sparrow + Horned Lark Swamp Song Sparrow +Pipit or Titlark Tree Sparrow +Whippoorwill Vesper Sparrow +Nighthawk White-crowned Sparrow +Black-billed Cuckoo White-throated Sparrow + +See also winter plumage of the Bobolink, Goldfinch, and Myrtle Warbler. See +females of Red-winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird, the Grackles, Bobolink, +Cowbird, the Redpolls, Purple Finch, Chewink, Bluebird, Indigo Bunting, +Baltimore Oriole, Cardinal, and of the Evening, the Blue, and the +Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. See also Purple Finch, the Redpolls, Mourning Dove, +Mocking-bird, Robin. + +BROWN, OLIVE OR GRAYISH BROWN, AND BROWN AND GRAY SPARROWY BIRDS + + +HOUSE WREN (Troglodytes aedon) Wren family + +Length -- 4.5 to 5 inches. Actually about one-fourth smaller than + the English sparrow; apparently only half as large because of + its erect tail. +Male and Female -- Upper parts cinnamon-brown. Deepest shade on + head and neck; lightest above tail, which is more rufous. Back + has obscure, dusky bars; wings and tail are finely barred. + Underneath whitish, with grayish-brown wash and faint bands + Most prominent on sides. +Range -- North America, from Manitoba to the Gulf. Most common in + the United States, from the Mississippi eastward. Winters south + of the Carolinas. +Migrations -- April October. Common summer resident. + +Early some morning in April there will go off under your window that most +delightful of all alarm-clocks -- the tiny, friendly house wren, just returned +from a long visit south. Like some little mountain spring that, having been +imprisoned by winter ice, now bubbles up in the spring sunshine, and goes +rippling along over the pebbles, tumbling over itself in merry cascades, so +this little wren's song bubbles, ripples, cascades in a miniature torrent of +ecstasy. + +Year after year these birds return to the same nesting places: a box set up +against the house, a crevice in the barn, a niche under the eaves; but once +home, always home to them. The nest is kept scrupulously clean; the +house-cleaning, like the house-building and renovating, being accompanied by +the cheeriest of songs, that makes the bird fairly tremble by its intensity. +But however angelic the voice of the house wren, its temper can put to flight +even the English sparrow. Need description go further. + +Six to eight minutely speckled, flesh-colored eggs suffice to keep the +nervous, irritable parents in a state bordering on frenzy whenever another +bird comes near their habitation. With tail erect and head alert, the father +mounts on guard, singing a perfect ecstasy of love to his silent little mate, +that sits upon the nest if no danger threatens; but both rush with passionate +malice upon the first intruder, for it must be admitted that Jenny wren is a +sad shrew. + +While the little family is being reared, or, indeed, at any time, no one is +wise enough to estimate the millions of tiny insects from the garden that find +their way into the tireless bills of these wrens. + +It is often said that the house wren remains at the north all the year, which, +though not a fact, is easily accounted for by the coming of the winter wrens +just as the others migrate in the autumn, and by their return to Canada when +Jenny wren makes up her feather-bed under the eaves in the spring. + + +CAROLINA WREN (Thryothorus ludovicianus) Wren family + +Called also: MOCKING WREN + +Length -- 6 inches. Just a trifle smaller than the English + sparrow +Male and Female -- Chestnut-brown above. A whitish streak, + beginning at base of bill, passes through the eye to the nape + of the neck. Throat whitish. Under parts light buff-brown Wings + and tail finely barred with dark. +Range -- United States, from Gulf to northern Illinois and + Southern New England. +Migrations -- A common resident except at northern boundary of + range, where it is a summer visitor. + +This largest of the wrens appears to be the embodiment of the entire family +characteristics: it is exceedingly active, nervous, and easily excited, +quick-tempered, full of curiosity, peeping into every hole and corner it +passes, short of flight as it is of wing, inseparable from its mate till +parted by death, and a gushing lyrical songster that only death itself can +silence. It also has the wren-like preference for a nest that is roofed over, +but not too near the homes of men. + +Undergrowths near water, brush heaps, rocky bits of woodland, are favorite +resorts. The Carolina wren decidedly objects to being stared at, and likes to +dart out of sight in the midst of the underbrush in a twinkling while the +opera-glasses are being focussed. To let off some of his superfluous +vivacity, Nature has provided him with two safety-valves: one is his voice, +another is his tail. With the latter he gesticulates in a manner so expressive +that it seems to be a certain index to what is passing in his busy little +brain -- drooping it, after the habit of the catbird, when he becomes limp +with the emotion of his love-song, or holding it erect as, alert and +inquisitive, he peers at the impudent intruder in the thicket below his perch. + +But it is his joyous, melodious, bubbling song that is his chief fascination. +He has so great a variety of strains that many people have thought that he +learned them from other birds, and so have called him what many ornithologists +declare that he is not -- a mocking wren. And he is one of the few birds that +sing at night -- not in his sleep or only by moonlight, but even in the total +darkness, just before dawn, he gives us the same wide-awake song that +entrances us by day. + + +WINTER WREN (Troglodytes biemalis) Wren family + +Length -- 4 to 4.5 inches. About one-third smaller than the + English sparrow. Apparently only half the size. +Male and Female -- Cinnamon-brown above, with numerous short, + dusky bars. Head and neck without markings. Underneath rusty, + dimly and finely barred with dark brown. Tail short. +Range -- United States, east and west, and from North Carolina to + the Fur Countries +Migrations -- October, April. Summer resident. Commonly a winter + resident in the South and Middle States only. + +It all too rarely happens that we see this tiny mouse-like wren in summer, +unless we come upon him suddenly and overtake him unawares as he creeps shyly +over the mossy logs or runs literally "like a flash" under the fern and +through the tangled underbrush of the deep, cool woods. His presence there is +far more likely to be detected by the ear than the eye. + +Throughout the nesting season music fairly pours from his tiny throat; it +bubbles up like champagne; it gushes forth in a lyrical torrent and overflows +into every nook of the forest, that seems entirely pervaded by his song. While +music is everywhere, it apparently comes from no particular point, and, search +as you may, the tiny singer still eludes, exasperates, and yet entrances. + +If by accident you discover him balancing on a swaying twig, never far from +the ground, with his comical little tail erect, or more likely pointing +towards his head, what a pert, saucy minstrel he is! You are lost in amazement +that so much music could come from a throat so tiny. + +Comparatively few of his admirers, however, hear the exquisite notes of this +little brown wood-sprite, for after the nesting season is over he finds little +to call them forth during the bleak, snowy winter months, when in the Middle +and Southern States he may properly be called a neighbor. Sharp hunger, rather +than natural boldness, drives him near the homes of men, where he appears just +as the house wren departs for the South. With a forced confidence in man that +is almost pathetic in a bird that loves the forest as he does, he picks up +whatever lies about the house or barn in the shape of food-crumbs from the +kitchen door, a morsel from the dog's plate, a little seed in the barn-yard, +happily rewarded if he can find a spider lurking in some sheltered place to +give a flavor to the unrelished grain. Now he becomes almost tame, but we feel +it is only because he must be. + +The spot that decided preference leads him to, either winter or summer, is +beside a bubbling spring. In the moss that grows near it the nest is placed in +early summer, nearly always roofed over and entered from the side, in true +wren-fashion; and as the young fledglings emerge from the creamy-white eggs, +almost the first lesson they receive from their devoted little parents is in +the fine art of bathing. Even in winter weather, when the wren has to stand on +a rim of ice, he will duck and splash his diminutive body. It is recorded of a +certain little individual that he was wont to dive through the icy water on a +December day. Evidently the wrens, as a family, are not far removed in the +evolutionary scale from true water-birds. + + +LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN (Cistothorus palustris) Wren family + +[Called also: MARSH WREN, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 4.5 to 5.2 inches. Actually a little smaller than the + English sparrow. Apparently half the size. +Male and Female -- Brown above, with white line over the eye, and + the back irregularly and faintly streaked with white. Wings and + tail barred with darker cinnamon-brown. Underneath white. Sides + dusky. Tail long and often carried erect. Bill extra long and + slender. +Range -- United States and southern British America. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +Sometimes when you are gathering cat-tails in the river marshes an alert, +nervous little brown bird rises startled from the rushes and tries to elude +you as with short, jerky flight it goes deeper and deeper into the marsh, +where even the rubber boot may not follow. It closely resembles two other +birds found in such a place, the swamp sparrow and the short-billed marsh +wren; but you may know by its long, slender bill that it is not the latter, +and by the absence of a bright bay crown that it is not the shyest of the +sparrows. + +These marsh wrens appear to be especially partial to running water; their +homes are not very far from brooks and rivers, preferably those that are +affected in their rise and flow by the tides. They build in colonies, and +might be called inveterate singers, for no single bird is often permitted to +finish his bubbling song without half the colony joining in a chorus. + +Still another characteristic of this particularly interesting bird is its +unique architectural effects produced with coarse grasses woven into globular +form and suspended in the reeds. Sometimes adapting its nest to the building +material at hand, it weaves it of grasses and twigs, and suspends it from the +limb of a bush or tree overhanging the water, where it swings like an +oriole's. The entrance to the nest is invariably on the side. + +More devoted homebodies than these little wrens are not among the feathered +tribe. Once let the hand of man desecrate their nest, even before the tiny +speckled eggs are deposited in it, and off go the birds to a more inaccessible +place, where they can enjoy their home unmolested. Thus three or four nests +may be made in a summer. + + +SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN (Cistothorus stellaris) Wren family + +[Called also: SEDGE WREN, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 4 to 5 inches. Actually about one-third smaller than + the English sparrow, but apparently only half its size. +Male and Female -- Brown above, faintly streaked with white, + black, and buff. Wings and tail barred with same. Underneath + white, with buff and rusty tinges on throat and breast. Short + bill. +Range -- North America, from Manitoba southward in winter to Gulf + of Mexico. Most common in north temperate latitudes. +Migrations -- Early May. Late September. + +Where red-winged blackbirds like to congregate in oozy pastures or near boggy +woods, the little short-billed wren may more often be heard than seen, for he +is more shy, if possible, than his long-billed cousin, and will dive down into +the sedges at your approach, very much as a duck disappears under water. But +if you see him at all, it is usually while swaying to and fro as he clings to +some tall stalk of grass, keeping his balance by the nervous, jerky tail +motions characteristic of all the wrens, and singing with all his might. +Oftentimes his tail reaches backward almost to his head in a most exaggerated +wren-fashion. + +Samuels explains the peculiar habit both the long-billed and the short-billed +marsh wrens have of building several nests in one season, by the theory that +they are made to protect the sitting female, for it is noticed that the male +bird always lures a visitor to an empty nest, and if this does not satisfy his +curiosity, to another one, to prove conclusively that he has no family in +prospect. + +Wild rice is an ideal nesting place for a colony of these little marsh wrens. +The home is made of sedge grasses, softly lined with the softer meadow grass +or plant-down, and placed in a tussock of tall grass, or even upon the ground. +The entrance is on the side. But while fond of moist places, both for a home +and feeding ground, it will be noticed that these wrens have no special +fondness for running water, so dear to their long-billed relatives. Another +distinction is that the eggs of this species, instead of being so densely +speckled as to look brown, are pure white. + + +BROWN THRASHER (Harporhynchus rufus) Thrasher and Mocking-bird + family + +Called also: BROWN THRUSH; GROUND THRUSH; RED THRUSH; BROWN + MOCKING-BIRD; FRENCH MOCKING-BIRD; MAVIS + +Length -- 11 to 11.5 inches. Fully an inch longer than the robin. +Male -- Rusty red-brown or rufous above; darkest on wings, which + have two short whitish bands. Underneath white, heavily + streaked (except on throat) with dark-brown, arrow-shaped + spots. Tail very long. Yellow eyes. Bill long and curved at + tip. +Female -- Paler than male. +Range -- United States to Rockies. Nests from Gulf States to + Manitoba and Montreal. Winters south of Virginia. +Migrations -- Late April. October. Common summer resident + + "There's a merry brown thrush sitting up in a tree; + He is singing to me! He is singing to me! + And what does he say, little girl, little boy? + 'Oh, the world's running over with joy!'" + +The hackneyed poem beginning with this stanza that delighted our nursery days, +has left in our minds a fairly correct impression of the bird. He still proves +to be one of the perennially joyous singers, like a true cousin of the wrens, +and when we study him afield, he appears to give his whole attention to his +song with a self-consciousness that is rather amusing than the reverse. "What +musician wouldn't be conscious of his own powers," he seems to challenge us, +"if he possessed such a gift?" Seated on a conspicuous perch, as if inviting +attention to his performance, with uplifted head and drooping tail he repeats +the one exultant, dashing air to which his repertoire is limited, without +waiting for an encore. Much practice has given the notes a brilliancy of +execution to be compared only with the mockingbird's; but in spite of the name +"ferruginous mocking-bird" that Audubon gave him, he does not seem to have the +faculty of imitating other birds' songs. Thoreau says the Massachusetts +farmers, when planting their seed, always think they hear the thrasher say, +"Drop it, drop it -- cover it up, cover it up -- pull it up, pull it up, pull +it up." + +One of the shatterings of childish impressions that age too often brings is +when we learn by the books that our "merry brown thrush" is no thrush at all, +but a thrasher -- first cousin to the wrens, in spite of his speckled breast, +large size, and certain thrush-like instincts, such as never singing near the +nest and shunning mankind in the nesting season, to mention only two. +Certainly his bold, swinging flight and habit of hopping and running over the +ground would seem to indicate that he is not very far removed from the true +thrushes. But he has one undeniable wren-like trait, that of twitching, +wagging, and thrashing his long tail about to help express his emotions. It +swings like a pendulum as he rests on a branch, and thrashes about in a most +ludicrous way as he is feeding on the ground upon the worms, insects, and +fruit that constitute his diet. + +Before the fatal multiplication of cats, and in unfrequented, sandy locations +still, the thrasher builds her nest upon the ground, thus earning the name +"ground thrush" that is often given her; but with dearly paid-for wisdom she +now most frequently selecting a low shrub or tree to cradle the two broods +that all too early in the summer effectually silence the father's delightful +song. + + +WILSON'S THRUSH (Turdus fuscescens) Thrush family + +Called also: VEERY {AOU 1998]; TAWNY THRUSH + +Length -- 7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. +Male and Female -- Uniform olive-brown, with a tawny cast above. + Centre of the throat white, with cream-buff on sides of throat + and upper part of breast, which is lightly spotted with + wedge-shaped, brown points. Underneath white, or with a faint + grayish tinge. +Range -- United States, westward to plains. +Migrations -- May. October. Summer resident. + +To many of us the veery, as they call the Wilson's thrush in New England, is +merely a voice, a sylvan mystery, reflecting the sweetness and wildness of the +forest, a vocal "will-o'-the-wisp" that, after enticing us deeper and deeper +into the woods, where we sink into the spongy moss of its damp retreats and +become entangled in the wild grape-vines twined about the saplings and +underbrush, still sings to us from unapproachable tangles. Plainly, if we want +to see the bird, we must let it seek us out on the fallen log where we have +sunk exhausted in the chase. + +Presently a brown bird scuds through the fern. It is a thrush, you guess in a +minute, from its slender, graceful body. At first you notice no speckles on +its breast, but as it comes nearer, obscure arrow-heads are visible -- not +heavy, heart-shaped spots such as plentifully speckle the larger wood thrush +or the smaller hermit. It is the smallest of the three commoner thrushes, and +it lacks the ring about the eye that both the others have. Shy and elusive, it +slips away again in a most unfriendly fashion, and is lost in the wet tangle +before you have become acquainted. You determine, however, before you leave +the log, to cultivate the acquaintance of this bird the next spring, when, +before it mates and retreats to the forest, it comes boldly into the gardens +and scratches about in the dry leaves on the ground for the lurking insects +beneath. Miss Florence Merriam tells of having drawn a number of veeries about +her by imitating their call-note, which is a whistled wheew, whoit, very easy +to counterfeit when once heard. "Taweel-ah, taweel-ah, twil-ah, twil-ah!" +Professor Ridgeway interprets their song, that descends in a succession of +trills without break or pause; but no words can possibly convey an idea of the +quality of the music. The veery, that never claims an audience, sings at night +also, and its weird, sweet strains floating through the woods at dusk, thrill +one like the mysterious voice of a disembodied spirit. + +Whittier mentions the veery in "The Playmate": + + "And here in spring the veeries sing + The song of long ago." + + +WOOD THRUSH (Turdus mustelinus) Thrush family + +Called also: SONG THRUSH; WOOD ROBIN; BELLBIRD + +Length -- 8 to 8.3 inches. About two inches shorter than the + robin. +Male and Female -- Brown above, reddish on head and shoulders, + shading into olive-brown on tail. Throat, breast, and + underneath white, plain in the middle, but heavily marked on + sides and breast with heart-shaped spots of very dark brown. + Whitish eye-ring. +Migrations -- Late April or early May. October. Summer resident. + +When Nuttall wrote of "this solitary and retiring songster," before the +country was as thickly settled as it is to-day, it possibly had not developed +the confidence in men that now distinguishes the wood thrush from its shy +congeners that are distinctly wood birds, which it can no longer strictly be +said to be. In city parks and country places, where plenty of trees shade the +village streets and lawns, it comes near you, half hopping, half running, with +dignified unconsciousness and even familiarity, all the more delightful in a +bird whose family instincts should take it into secluded woodlands with their +shady dells. Perhaps, in its heart of hearts, it still prefers such retreats. +Many conservative wood thrushes keep to their wild haunts, and it must be +owned not a few liberals, that discard family traditions at other times, seek +the forest at nesting time. But social as the wood thrush is and abundant, +too, it is also eminently high-bred; and when contrasted with its tawny +cousin, the veery, that skulks away to hide in the nearest bushes as you +approach, or with the hermit thrush, that pours out its heavenly song in the +solitude of the forest, how gracious and full of gentle confidence it seems! +Every gesture is graceful and elegant; even a wriggling beetle is eaten as +daintily as caviare at the king's table. It is only when its confidence in you +is abused, and you pass too near the nest, that might easily be mistaken for a +robin's, just above your head in a sapling, that the wood thrush so far +forgets itself as to become excited. Pit, pit, pit, sharply reiterated, is +called out at you with a strident quality in the tone that is painful evidence +of the fearful anxiety your presence gives this gentle bird. + +Too many guardians of nests, whether out of excessive happiness or excessive +stupidity, have a dangerous habit of singing very near them. Not so the wood +thrush. "Come to me," as the opening notes of its flute-like song have been +freely translated, invites the intruder far away from where the blue eggs lie +cradled in ambush. is as good a rendering into syllables of the luscious song +as could very well be made. Pure, liquid, rich, and luscious, it rings out +from the trees on the summer air and penetrates our home like +"Uoli-a-e-o-li-noli-nol-aeolee-lee! strait of music from a stringed quartette. + + +HERMIT THRUSH (Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii) Thrush family + +Called also: SWAMP ANGEL; LITTLE THRUSH + +Length -- 7.25 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. +Male and Female -- Upper parts olive-brown, reddening near the + tail, which is pale rufous, quite distinct from the color of + the back. Throat, sides of neck, and breast pale buff. Feathers + of throat and neck finished with dark arrow-points at tip; + feathers of the breast have larger rounded spots. Sides + brownish gray. Underneath white. A yellow ring around the eye. + Smallest of the thrushes. +Range -- Eastern parts of North America. Most common in the + United States to the plains. Winters from southern Illinois and + New Jersey to Gulf. +Migrations -- April. November. Summer resident. + +The first thrush to come and the last to go, nevertheless the hermit is little +seen throughout its long visit north. It may loiter awhile in the shrubby +roadsides, in the garden or the parks in the spring before it begins the +serious business of life in a nest of moss, coarse grass, and pine-needles +placed on the ground in the depths of the forest, but by the middle of May its +presence in the neighborhood of our homes becomes only a memory. Although one +never hears it at its best during the migrations, how one loves to recall the +serene, ethereal evening hymn! "The finest sound in Nature," John Burroughs +calls it. "It is not a proud, gorgeous strain like the tanager's or the +grosbeak's," he says; "it suggests no passion or emotion -- nothing personal, +but seems to be the voice of that calm, sweet solemnity one attains to in his +best moments. It realizes a peace and a deep, solemn joy that only the finest +souls may know." + +Beyond the question of even the hypercritical, the hermit thrush has a more +exquisitely beautiful voice than any other American bird, and only the +nightingale's of Europe can be compared with it. It is the one theme that +exhausts all the ornithologists' musical adjectives in a vain attempt to +convey in words any idea of it to one who has never heard it, for the quality +of the song is as elusive as the bird itself. But why should the poets be so +silent? Why has it not called forth such verse as the English poets have +lavished upon the nightingale? Undoubtedly because it lifts up its heavenly +voice in the solitude of the forest. whereas the nightingales, singing in loud +choruses in the moonlight under the poet's very window, cannot but impress his +waking thoughts and even his dreams with their melody. + +Since the severe storm and cold in the Gulf States a few winters ago, where +vast numbers of hermit thrushes died from cold and starvation, this bird has +been very rare in haunts where it used to be abundant. The other thrushes +escaped because they spend the winter farther south. + + +ALICE'S THRUSH (Turdus alicia) Thrush family + +Called also: GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH; [now separated into two + species: the more mid-western GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH and the New + England and Adirondack BICKNELL'S THRUSH, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 7.5 to 8 inches. About the size of the bluebird. +Male and Female -- Upper parts uniform olive-brown. Eye-ring + whitish. Cheeks gray; sides dull grayish white. Sides of the + throat and breast pale cream-buff, speckled with arrow-shaped + points on throat and with half-round dark-brown marks below. +Range -- North America, from Labrador and Alaska to Central + America. +Migrations -- Late April or May. October. Chiefly seen in + migrations, except at northern parts of its range. + +One looks for a prettier bird than this least attractive of all the thrushes +in one that bears such a suggestive name. Like the olive-backed thrush, from +which it is almost impossible to tell it when both are alive and hopping about +the shrubbery, its plumage above is a dull olive-brown that is more protective +than pleasing. + +Just as Wilson hopelessly confused the olive-backed thrush with the hermit, so +has Alice's thrush been confounded by later writers with the olive-backed, +from which it differs chiefly in being a trifle larger, in having gray cheeks +instead of buff, and in possessing a few faint streaks on the throat. Where it +goes to make a home for its greenish-blue speckled eggs in some low bush at +the northern end of its range, it bursts into song, but except in the nesting +grounds its voice is never heard. Mr. Bradford Torrey, who heard it singing in +the White Mountains, describes the song as like the thrush's in quality, but +differently accented: "Wee-o-wee-o-tit-ti-wee-o!" + +In New England and New York this thrush is most often seen during its autumn +migrations. As it starts up and perches upon a low branch before you, it +appears to have longer legs and a broader, squarer tail than its congeners. + + +OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH (Turdus ustulatus swainsonii) Thrush family + +Called also: SWAINSON'S THRUSH [AOU 1998] + +Length -- 7 to 7.50 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. +Male and Female -- Upper parts olive-brown. Whole throat and + breast yellow-buff, shading to ashy on sides and to white + underneath. Buff ring around eye. Dark streaks on sides of + throat (none on centre), and larger, more spot-like marks on + breast. +Range -- North America to Rockies; a few stragglers on Pacific + slope. Northward to arctic countries. +Migrations -- April. October. Summer resident in Canada. Chiefly + a migrant in United States. + +Mr. Parkhurst tells of finding this "the commonest bird in the Park (Central +Park, New York), not even excepting the robin," during the last week of May on +a certain year; but usually, it must be owned, we have to be on the lookout to +find it, or it will pass unnoticed in the great companies of more conspicuous +birds travelling at the same time. White-throated sparrows often keep it +company on the long journeys northward, and they may frequently be seen +together, hopping sociably about the garden, the thrush calling out a rather +harsh note -- puk! puk! -- quite different from the liquid, mellow calls of +the other thrushes, to resent either the sparrows' bad manners or the +inquisitiveness of a human disturber of its peace. But this gregarious habit +and neighborly visit end even before acquaintance fairly begins, and the +thrushes are off for their nesting grounds in the pine woods of New England or +Labrador if they are travelling up the east coast, or to Alaska, British +Columbia, or Manitoba if west of the Mississippi. There they stay all summer, +often travelling southward with the sparrows in the autumn, as in the spring. + +Why they should prefer coniferous trees, unless to utilize the needles for a +nest, is not understood. Low trees and bushes are favorite building sites with +them as with others of the family, though these thrushes disdain a mud lining +to their nests. Those who have heard the olive-backed thrush singing an +even-song to its brooding mate compare it with the veery's, but it has a break +in it and is less simple and pleasing than the latter's. + + +LOUISIANA WATER THRUSH (Seiurus motacilla) Wood Warbler family + +Length -- 6 to 6.28 inches. Just a trifle smaller than the + English sparrow. +Male and Female -- Grayish olive-brown upper parts, with + conspicuous white line over the eye and reaching almost to the + nape. Underneath white, tinged with pale buff. Throat and line + through the middle, plain. Other parts streaked with very dark + brown, rather faintly on the breast, giving them the speckled + breast of the thrushes. Heavy, dark bill. +Range -- United States, westward to the plains; northward to + southern New England. Winters in the tropics. +Migrations -- Late April. October. Summer resident. + +This bird, that so delighted Audubon with its high-trilled song as he tramped +with indefatigable zeal through the hammocks of the Gulf States, seems to be +almost the counterpart of the Northern water thrush, just as the loggerhead is +the Southern counterpart of the Northern shrike. Very many Eastern birds have +their duplicates in Western species, as we all know, and it is most +interesting to trace the slight external variations that different climates +and diet have produced on the same bird, and thus differentiated the species. +In winter the Northern water thrush visits the cradle of its kind, the swamps +of Louisiana and Florida, and, no doubt, by daily contact with its congeners +there, keeps close to their cherished traditions, from which it never deviates +farther than Nature compels, though it penetrate to the arctic regions during +its summer journeys. + +With a more southerly range, the Louisiana water thrush does not venture +beyond the White Mountains and to the shores of the Great Lakes in summer, but +even at the North the same woods often contain both birds, and there is +opportunity to note just how much they differ. The Southern bird is slightly +the larger, possibly an inch; it is more gray, and it lacks a few of the +streaks, notably on the throat, that plentifully speckle its Northern +counterpart; but the habits of both of these birds appear to be identical. +Only for a few days in the spring or autumn migrations do they pass near +enough to our homes for us to study them, and then we must ever be on the +alert to steal a glance at them through the opera-glasses, for birds more shy +than they do not visit the garden shrubbery at any season. Only let them +suspect they are being stared at, and they are under cover in a twinkling. + +Where mountain streams dash through tracts of mossy, spongy ground that is +carpeted with fern and moss, and overgrown with impenetrable thickets of +underbrush and tangles of creepers -- such a place is the favorite resort of +both the water thrushes. With a rubber boot missing, clothes torn, and temper +by no means unruffled, you finally stand over the Louisiana thrush's nest in +the roots of an upturned tree immediately over the water, or else in a mossy +root-belaced bank above a purling stream. A liquid-trilled warble, wild and +sweet, breaks the stillness, and, like Audubon, you feel amply rewarded for +your pains though you may not be prepared to agree with him in thinking the +song the equal of the European nightingale's. + + +NORTHERN WATER THRUSH (Seiurus noveboracensis) Wood Warbler +family + +Called also: NEW YORK WATER THRUSH; AQUATIC WOOD WAGTAIL; AQUATIC + THRUSH + +Length -- 5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Uniform olive or grayish brown above. Pale + buff line over the eye. Underneath, white tinged with sulphur + yellow, and streaked like a thrush with very dark brown arrow + headed or oblong spots that are also seen underneath wings. +Range -- United States, westward to Rockies and northward through + British provinces. Winters from Gulf States southward. +Migrations -- Late April. October. Summer resident. + +According to the books we have before us, a warbler; but who, to look at his +speckled throat and breast, would ever take him for anything but a diminutive +thrush; or, studying him from some distance through the opera-glasses as he +runs in and out of the little waves along the brook or river shore, would not +name him a baby sandpiper? The rather unsteady motion of his legs, balancing +of the tail, and sudden jerking of the head suggest an aquatic bird rather +than a bird of the woods. But to really know either man or beast, you must +follow him to his home, and if you have pluck enough to brave the swamp and +the almost impenetrable tangle of undergrowth where the water thrush chooses +to nest, there "In the swamp in secluded recesses, a shy and hidden bird is +warbling a song;" and this warbled song that Walt Whitman so adored gives you +your first clue to the proper classification of the bird. It has nothing in +common with the serene, hymn-like voices of the true thrushes; the bird has no +flute-like notes, but an emphatic smacking or chucking kind of warble. For a +few days only is this song heard about the gardens and roadsides of our +country places. Like the Louisiana water thrush, this bird never ventures near +the homes of men after the spring and autumn migrations, but, on the contrary, +goes as far away from them as possible, preferably to some mountain region, +beside a cool and dashing brook, where a party of adventurous young climbers +from a summer hotel or the lonely trout fisherman may startle it from its +mossy nest on the ground. + + +FLICKER (Colaptes auratus) Woodpecker family + +Called also: GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER; CLAPE; PIGEON WOODPECKER; + YELLOWHAMMER; HIGH HOLE OR HIGH-HOLDER; YARUP; WAKE-UP; + YELLOW-SHAFTED WOODPECKER + +Length -- 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the + robin. +Male and Female -- Head and neck bluish gray, with a red crescent + across back of neck and a black crescent on breast. Male has + black cheek-patches, that are wanting in female. Golden brown + shading into brownish-gray, and barred with black above. + Underneath whitish, tinged with light chocolate and thickly + spotted with black. Wing linings, shafts of wing, and tail + quills bright yellow. Above tail white, conspicuous when the + bird flies. +Range -- United States, east of Rockies; Alaska and British + America, south of Hudson Bay. Occasional on Pacific slope. +Migrations -- Most commonly seen from April to October. Usually + Resident. + +If we were to follow the list of thirty-six aliases by which this largest and +commonest of our woodpeckers is known throughout its wide range, we should +find all its peculiarities of color, flight, noises, and habits indicated in +its popular names. It cannot but attract attention wherever seen, with its +beautiful plumage, conspicuously yellow if its outstretched wings are looked +at from below, conspicuously brown and white if seen upon the ground. At a +distance it suggests the meadowlark. Both birds wear black, crescent breast +decorations, and the flicker also has the habit of feeding upon the ground, +especially in autumn, a characteristic not shared by its relations. + +Early in the spring this bird of many names and many voices makes itself known +by a long, strong, sonorous call, a sort of proclamation that differs from its +song proper, which Audubon. calls "a prolonged jovial laugh" (described by +Mrs. Wright as "Wick, wick, wick, wick!") and differs also from its rapidly +repeated, mellow, and most musical cub, cub, cub, cub, cub, uttered during the +nesting season. + +Its nasal kee-yer, vigorously called out in the autumn, is less +characteristic, however, than the sound it makes while associating with its +fellows on the feeding ground -- a sound that Mr. Frank M. Chapman says can be +closely imitated by the swishing of a willow wand. + +A very ardent and ridiculous-looking lover is this bird, as, with tail stiffly +spread, he sidles up to his desired mate and bows and bobs before her, then +retreats and advances, bowing and bobbing again, very often with a rival lover +beside him (whom he generously tolerates) trying to outdo him in grace and +general attractiveness. Not the least of the bird's qualities that must +commend themselves to the bride is his unfailing good nature, genial alike in +the home and in the field. + +The "high-holders" have the peculiar and silly habit of boring out a number of +superfluous holes for nests high up in the trees, in buildings, or hollow +wooden columns, only one of which they intend to use. Six white eggs is the +proper number for a household, but Dr. Coues says the female that has been +robbed keeps on laying three or even four sets of eggs without interruption. + + +MEADOWLARK (Sturnella magna) Blackbird family + +Called also: FIELD LARK; OLDFIELD LARK; [EASTERN MEADOWLARK, AOU + 1998] + +Length -- 10 to 11 inches. A trifle larger than the robin. +Male -- Upper parts brown, varied with chestnut, deep brown, and + black. Crown streaked with brown and black, and with a + cream-colored streak through the centre. Dark-brown line + apparently running through the eye; another line over eye, + yellow. Throat and chin yellow; a large conspicuous black + crescent on breast. Underneath yellow, shading into buffy + brown, spotted or streaked with very dark brown, Outer tail + feathers chiefly white, conspicuous in flight. Long, strong + legs and claws, adapted for walking. Less black in winter + plumage, which is more grayish brown. +Female -- Paler than male. +Range -- North America, from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico, + and westward to the plains, where the Western meadowlark takes + its place. Winters from Massachusetts and Illinois southward. +Migrations -- April. Late October. Usually a resident, a few + remaining through the winter. + +In the same meadows with the red-winged blackbirds, birds of another feather, +but of the same family, nevertheless, may be found flocking together, hunting +for worms and larvae, building their nests, and rearing their young very near +each other with the truly social instinct of all their kin. + +The meadowlarks, which are really not larks at all, but the blackbirds' and +orioles' cousins, are so protected by the coloring of the feathers on their +backs, like that of the grass and stubble they live among, that ten blackbirds +are noticed for every meadowlark although the latter is very common. Not until +you flush a flock of them as you walk along the roadside or through the +meadows and you note the white tail feathers and the black crescents on the +yellow breasts of the large brown birds that rise towards the tree-tops with +whirring sound and a flight suggesting the quail's, do you suspect there are +any birds among the tall grasses. + +Their clear and piercing whistle, "Spring o' the y-e-a-r, Spring o' the year!" +rings out from the trees with varying intonation and accent, but always sweet +and inspiriting. To the bird's high vantage ground you may not follow, for no +longer having the protection of the high grass, it has become wary and flies +away as you approach, calling out peent-peent and nervously flitting its tail +(again showing the white feather), when it rests a moment on the pasture +fence-rail. + +It is like looking for a needle in a haystack to try to find a meadowlark's +nest, an unpretentious structure of dried grasses partly arched over and +hidden in a clump of high timothy, flat upon the ground. But what havoc snakes +and field-mice play with the white-speckled eggs and helpless fledglings! The +care of rearing two or three broods in a season and the change of plumage to +duller winter tints seem to exhaust the high spirits of the sweet whistler. +For a time he is silent, but partly regains his vocal powers in the autumn, +when, with large flocks of his own kind, he resorts to marshy feeding grounds. +In the winter he chooses for companions the horned larks, that walk along the +shore, or the snow buntings and sparrows of the inland pastures, and will even +include the denizens of the barn-yard when hunger drives him close to the +haunts of men. + +The Western Meadowlark or Prairie Lark (Sturnella magna neglecta), which many +ornithologists consider a different species from the foregoing [as does AOU +1998], is distinguished chiefly by its lighter, more grayish-brown plumage, by +its yellow cheeks, and more especially by its richer, fuller song. In his +"Birds of Manitoba" Mr. Ernest E. Thompson says of this meadowlark: "In +richness of voice and modulation it equals or excels both wood thrush and +nightingale, and in the beauty of its articulation it has no superior in the +whole world of feathered choristers with which I am acquainted." + + +HORNED LARK (Otocoris alpestris) Lark family + +Called also: SHORE LARK + +Length -- 7.5 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the + robin. +Male -- Upper parts dull brown, streaked with lighter on edges + and tinged with pink or vinaceous; darkest on back of head + neck, shoulders, and nearest the tail. A few erectile feathers + on either side of the head form slight tufts or horns that are + wanting in female. A black mark from the base of the bill + passes below the eye and ends in a horn-shaped curve on cheeks, + which are yellow. Throat clear yellow. Breast has crescent + shaped black patch. Underneath soiled white, with dusky spots + on lower breast. Tail black, the outer feathers margined with + white, noticed in flight. +Female -- Has yellow eye-stripe; less prominent markings, + especially on head, and is a trifle smaller. +Range -- Northeastern parts of North America, and in winter from + Ohio and eastern United States as far south as North Carolina. +Migrations -- October and November. March. Winter resident + +Far away to the north in Greenland and Labrador this true lark, the most +beautiful of its genus, makes its summer home. There it is a conspicuously +handsome bird with its pinkish-gray and chocolate feathers, that have greatly +faded into dull browns when we see them in the late autumn. In the far north +only does it sing, and, according to Audubon, the charming song is flung to +the breeze while the bird soars like a skylark. In the United States we hear +only its call-note. + +Great flocks come down the Atlantic coast in October and November, and +separate into smaller bands that take up their residence in sandy stretches +and open tracts near the sea or wherever the food supply looks promising, and +there the larks stay until all the seeds, buds of bushes, berries, larvae, and +insects in their chosen territory are exhausted. They are ever conspicuously +ground birds, walkers, and when disturbed at their dinner, prefer to squat on +the earth rather than expose themselves by flight. Sometimes they run nimbly +over the frozen ground to escape an intruder, but flying they reserve as a +last resort. When the visitor has passed they quickly return to their dinner. +If they were content to eat less ravenously and remain slender, fewer victims +might be slaughtered annually to tickle the palates of the epicure. It is a +mystery what they find to fatten upon when snow covers the frozen ground. Even +in the severe midwinter storms they will not seek the protection of the woods, +but always prefer sandy dunes with their scrubby undergrowth or open meadow +lands. Occasionally a small flock wanders toward the farms to pick up seeds +that are blown from the hayricks or scattered about the barn-yard by overfed +domestic fowls. + +The Prairie Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris praticola) is similar to the +preceding, but a trifle smaller and paler, with a white instead of a yellow +streak above the eye, the throat yellowish or entirely white instead of +sulphur-yellow, and other minor differences. It has a far more southerly +range, confined to northern portions of the United States from the Mississippi +eastward. Once a distinctly prairie bird, it now roams wherever large +stretches of open country that suit its purposes are cleared in the East, and +remains resident. This species also sings in midair on the wing, but its song +is a crude, half-inarticulate affair, barely audible from a height of two +hundred feet. + + +AMERICAN PIPIT (Anthus pensilvanicus) Wagtail family + +Called also: TITLARK; BROWN OR RED LARK + +Length -- 6.38 to 7 inches. About the size of a sparrow. +Male and Female -- Upper parts brown; wings and tail dark + olive-brown; the wing coverts tipped with buff or whitish, and + ends of outer tail feathers white, conspicuous in flight. White + or yellowish eye-ring, and line above the eye. Underneath light + buff brown, with spots on breast and sides, the under parts + being washed with brown of various shades. Feet brown. Hind + toe-nail as long as or longer than the toe. +Range -- North America at large. Winters south of Virginia to + Mexico and beyond. +Migrations -- April. October or November. Common in the United + States, chiefly during the migrations. + +The color of this bird varies slightly with age and sex, the under parts +ranging from white through pale rosy brown to a reddish tinge; but at any +season, and under all circumstances, the pipit is a distinctly brown bird, +resembling the water thrushes not in plumage only, but in the comical tail +waggings and jerkings that alone are sufficient to identify it. However the +books may tell us the bird is a wagtail, it certainly possesses two strong +characteristics of true larks: it is a walker, delighting in walking or +running, never hopping over the ground, and it has the angelic habit of +singing as it flies. + +During the migrations the pipits are abundant in salt marshes or open +stretches of country inland, that, with lark-like preference, they choose for +feeding grounds. When flushed, all the flock rise together with uncertain +flight, hovering and wheeling about the place, calling down dee-dee, dee-dee +above your head until you have passed on your way, then promptly returning to +the spot from whence they were disturbed. Along the roadsides and pastures, +where two or three birds are frequently seen together, they are too often +mistaken for the vesper sparrows because of their similar size and coloring, +but their easy, graceful walk should distinguish them at once from the hopping +sparrow. They often run to get ahead of some one in the lane, but rarely fly +if they can help it, and then scarcely higher than a fence-rail. Early in +summer they are off for the mountains in the north. Labrador is their chosen +nesting ground, and they are said to place their grassy nest, lined with +lichens or moss, flat upon the ground -- still another lark trait. Their eggs +are chocolate-brown scratched with black. + + +WHIPPOORWILL (Antrostomus vociferus) Goatsucker family + +[Called also: WHIP-POOR-WILL, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin. Apparently + much larger, because of its long wings and wide wingspread. +Male -- A long-winged bird, mottled all over with reddish brown, + grayish black, and dusky white; numerous bristles fringing the + large mouth. A narrow white band across the upper breast. Tail + quills on the end and under side white. +Female -- Similar to male, except that the tail is dusky in color + where that of the male is white. Band on breast buff instead of + white. +Range -- United States, to the plains. Not common near the sea. +Migrations -- Late April to middle of September. Summer resident. + +The whippoorwill, because of its nocturnal habits and plaintive note, is +invested with a reputation for occult power which inspires a chilling awe +among superstitious people, and leads them insanely to attribute to it an evil +influence; but it is a harmless, useful night prowler, flying low and catching +enormous numbers of hurtful insects, always the winged varieties, in its +peculiar fly-trap mouth. + +It loves the rocky, solitary woods, where it sleeps all day; but it is seldom +seen, even after painstaking search, because of its dull, mottled markings +conforming so nearly to rocks and dry leaves, and because of its unusual habit +of stretching itself length-wise on a tree branch or ledge, where it is easily +confounded with a patch of lichen, and thus overlooked. If by accident one +happens upon a sleeping bird, it suddenly rouses and flies away, making no +more sound than a passing butterfly -- a curious and uncanny silence that is +quite remarkable. When the sun goes down and as the gloaming deepens, the +bird's activity increases, and it begins its nightly duties, emitting from +time to time, like a sentry on his post or a watchman of the night, the +doleful call which has given the bird its common name. It + + "Mourns unseen, and ceaseless sings + Ever a note of wail and woe," + +that our Dutch ancestors interpreted as "Quote-kerr-kee," and so called it. +They had a tradition that no frost ever appeared after the bird had been heard +calling in the spring, and that it wisely left for warmer skies before frost +came in the autumn. Prudent bird, never caught napping! + +It is erratic in its choice of habitations, even when rock and solitude seem +suited to its taste. Very rarely is this odd bird found close to the seashore, +and in the Hudson River valley it keeps a half mile or more back from the +river. + +The eggs, generally two in number, are creamy white, dashed with dark and +olive spots, and laid on the ground on dry leaves, or in a little hollow in +rock or stump -- never in a nest built with loving care. But in extenuation of +such carelessness it may be said that, if disturbed or threatened, the mother +shows no lack of maternal instinct, and removes her young, carrying them in +her beak as a cat conveys her kittens to secure shelter. + + +NIGHTHAWK (Chordeiles virginianus) Goatsucker family + +Called also: NIGHTJAR; BULL-BAT; MOSQUITO HAWK; WILL-O'-THE-WISP; + PISK; PIRAMIDIG; LONGWINGED GOATSUCKER; [COMMON NIGHTHAWK, AOU + 1998] + +Length -- 9 to 10 inches. About the same length as the robin, but + apparently much longer because of its very wide wing-spread. +Male and Female -- Mottled blackish brown and rufous above, with + a multitude of cream-yellow spots and dashes. Lighter below, + with waving bars of brown on breast and underneath. White mark + on throat, like an imperfect horseshoe; also a band of white + across tail of male bird. These latter markings are wanting in + female. Heavy wings, which are partly mottled, are brown on + shoulders and tips, and longer than tail. They have large white + spots, conspicuous in flight, one of their distinguishing marks + from the whippoorwill. Head large and depressed, with large + eyes and ear-openings. Very small bill. +Range -- From Mexico to arctic islands. +Migrations -- May. October. Common summer resident. + +The nighthawk's misleading name could not well imply more that the bird is +not: it is not nocturnal in its habits, neither is it a hawk, for if it were, +no account of it would be given in this book, which distinctly excludes birds +of prey. Stories of its chicken-stealing prove to be ignorant rather than +malicious slanders. Any one disliking the name, however, surely cannot +complain of a limited choice of other names by which, in different sections of +the country, it is quite as commonly known. + +Too often it is mistaken for the whippoorwill. The night hawk does not have +the weird and woful cry of that more dismal bird, but gives instead a harsh, +whistling note while on the wing, followed by a vibrating, booming, whirring +sound that Nuttall likens to "the rapid turning of a spinning wheel, or a +strong blowing into the bung-hole of an empty hogshead." This peculiar sound +is responsible for the name nightjar, frequently given to this curious bird. +It is said to be made as the bird drops suddenly through the air, creating a +sort of stringed instrument of its outstretched wings and tail. When these +wings are spread, their large white spots running through the feathers to the +under side should be noted to further distinguish the nighthawk from the +whippoorwill, which has none, but which it otherwise closely resembles. This +booming sound, coming from such a height that the bird itself is often unseen, +was said by the Indians to be made by the shad spirits to warn the scholes of +shad about to ascend the rivers to spawn in the spring, of their impending +fate. + +The flight of the nighthawk is free and graceful in the extreme. Soaring +through space without any apparent motion of its wings, suddenly it darts with +amazing swiftness like an erratic bat after the fly, mosquito, beetle, or moth +that falls within the range of its truly hawk-like eye. + +Usually the nighthawks hunt in little companies in the most sociable fashion. +Late in the summer they seem to be almost gregarious. They fly in the early +morning or late afternoon with beak wide open, hawking for insects, but except +when the moon is full they are not known to go a-hunting after sunset. During +the heat of the day and at night they rest on limbs of trees, fence-rails, +stone walls, lichen-covered rocks or old logs -- wherever Nature has provided +suitable mimicry of their plumage to help conceal them. + +With this object in mind, they quite as often choose a hollow surface of rock +in some waste pasture or the open ground on which to deposit the two +speckled-gray eggs that sixteen days later will give birth to their family. +But in August, when family cares have ended for the season, it is curious to +find this bird of the thickly wooded country readily adapting itself to city +life, resting on Mansard roofs, darting into the streets from the housetops, +and wheeling about the electric lights, making a hearty supper of the little, +winged insects they attract. + + +BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO (Coccyzus erythrophthalmus) Cuckoo family + +Called also: RAIN CROW + +Length -- 11 to 12 inches. About one-fifth larger than the robin. +Male -- Grayish brown above, with bronze tint in feathers. + Underneath grayish white; bill, which is long as head and + black, arched and acute. Skin about the eye bright red. Tail + long, and with spots on tips of quills that are small and + inconspicuous. +Female -- Has obscure dusky bars on the tail. +Range -- Labrador to Panama; westward to Rocky Mountains. +Migration -- May. September. Summer resident. + + "O cuckoo! shalt I call thee bird? + Or but a wandering voice?" + +From the tangled shrubbery on the hillside back of Dove Cottage, Keswick, +where Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy listened for the coming of this +"darling of the spring"; in the willows overhanging Shakespeare's Avon; from +the favorite haunts of Chaucer and Spenser, where + + "Runneth meade and springeth blede," + +we hear the cuckoo calling; but how many on this side of the Atlantic are +familiar with its American counterpart? Here, too, the cuckoo delights in +running water and damp, cloudy weather like that of an English spring; it +haunts the willows by our river-sides, where as yet no "immortal bard" arises +to give it fame. It "loud sings" in our shrubbery, too. Indeed, if we cannot +study our bird afield, the next best place to become acquainted with it is in +the pages of the English poets. But due allowance must be made for differences +of temperament. Our cuckoo is scarcely a "merry harbinger"; his talents, such +as they are, certainly are not musical. However, the guttural cluck is not +discordant, and the black-billed species, at least, has a soft, mellow voice +that seems to indicate an embryonic songster. + +"K-k-k-k, kow-kow-ow-kow-ow!" is a familiar sound in many localities, but the +large. slim,, pigeon-shaped, brownish-olive bird that makes it, securely +hidden in the low trees and shrubs that are its haunts, is not often +personally known. Catching a glimpse only of the grayish-white under parts +from where we stand looking up into the tree at it, it is quite impossible to +tell the bird from the yellow-billed species. When, as it flies about, we are +able to note the red circles about its eyes, its black bill, and the absence +of black tail feathers, with their white "thumb-nail" spots, and see no bright +cinnamon feathers on the wings (the yellow-billed specie's distinguishing +marks), we can at last claim acquaintance with the black-billed cuckoo. Our +two common cuckoos are so nearly alike that they are constantly confused in +the popular mind and very often in the writings of ornithologists. At first +glance the birds look alike. Their haunts are almost identical; their habits +are the same; and, as they usually keep well out of sight, it is not +surprising if confusion arise. + +Neither cuckoo knows how to build a proper home; a bunch of sticks dropped +carelessly into the bush, where the hapless babies that emerge from the +greenish eggs will not have far to fall when they tumble out of bed, as they +must inevitably do, may by courtesy only be called a nest. The cuckoo is said +to suck the eggs of other birds; but, surely, such vice is only the rarest +dissipation. Insects of many kinds and "tent caterpillars" chiefly are their +chosen food. + + +YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO (Coccyzus americanus) Cuckoo family + +Called also: RAIN CROW + +Length -- 11 to 12 inches. About one-fifth longer than the robin. +Male and Female -- Grayish brown above, with bronze tint in + feathers. Underneath grayish white. Bill, which is as tong as + head, arched, acute, and more robust than the black-billed + species, and with lower mandible yellow. Wings washed with + bright cinnamon-brown. Tail has outer quills black, + conspicuously marked with white thumb-nail spots. +Female larger. +Range -- North America, from Mexico to Labrador. Most common in +temperate climates. Rare on Pacific slope. +Migrations -- Late April. September. Summer resident. + +"Kak, k-kuh, k-kuk, k-kuk!" like an exaggerated tree-toad's rattle, is a sound +that, when first heard, makes you rush out of doors instantly to "name" the +bird. Look for him in the depths of the tall shrubbery or low trees, near +running water, if there is any in the neighborhood, and if you are more +fortunate than most people, you will presently become acquainted with the +yellow-billed cuckoo. When seen perching at a little distance, his large, slim +body, grayish brown, with olive tints above and whitish below, can scarcely be +distinguished from that of the black-billed species. It is not until you get +close enough to note the yellow bill, reddish-brown wings, and black tail +feathers with their white "thumb-nail" marks, that you know which cuckoo you +are watching. In repose the bird looks dazed or stupid, but as it darts about +among the trees after insects, noiselessly slipping to another one that +promises better results, and hopping along the limbs after performing a series +of beautiful evolutions among the branches as it hunts for its favorite "tent +caterpillars," it appears what it really is: an unusually active, graceful, +intelligent bird. + +A solitary wanderer, nevertheless one cuckoo in an apple orchard is worth a +hundred robins in ridding it of caterpillars and inch-worms, for it delights +in killing many more of these than it can possibly eat. In the autumn it +varies its diet with minute fresh-water shellfish from the swamp and lake. +Mulberries, that look so like caterpillars the bird possibly likes them on +that account, it devours wholesale. + +Family cares rest lightly on the cuckoos. The nest of both species is a +ramshackle affair -- a mere bundle of twigs and sticks without a rim to keep +the eggs from rolling from the bush, where they rest, to the ground. Unlike +their European relative, they have the decency to rear their own young and not +impose this heavy task on others; but the cuckoos on both sides of the +Atlantic are most erratic and irregular in their nesting habits. The +overworked mother-bird often lays an egg while brooding over its nearly +hatched companion, and the two or three half-grown fledglings already in the +nest may roll the large greenish eggs out upon the ground, while both parents +are off searching for food to quiet their noisy clamorings. Such distracting +mismanagement in the nursery is enough to make a homeless wanderer of any +father. It is the mother-bird that tumbles to the ground at your approach from +sheer fright; feigns lameness, trails her wings as she tries to entice you +away from the nest. The male bird shows far less concern; a no more devoted +father, we fear, than he is a lover. It is said he changes his mate every +year. + +Altogether, the cuckoo is a very different sort of bird from what our fancy +pictured. The little Swiss creatures of wood that fly out of the doors of +clocks and call out the bed-hour to sleepy children, are chiefly responsible +for the false impressions of our mature years. The American bird does not +repeat its name, and its harsh, grating "kuk, kuk," does not remotely suggest +the sweet voice of its European relative. + + +BANK SWALLOW (Clivicola riparia) Swallow family + +Called also: SAND MARTIN; SAND SWALLOW + +Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch shorter than the English + sparrow, but apparently much larger because of its wide + wing-spread. +Male and Female -- Grayish brown or clay-colored above. Upper + wings and tail darkest. Below, white, with brownish band + across chest. Tail, which is rounded and more nearly square + than the other swallows, is obscurely edged with white. +Range -- Throughout North America south of Hudson Bay. +Migrations -- April. October. Summer resident. + +Where a brook cuts its way through a sand bank to reach the sea is an ideal +nesting ground for a colony of sand martins. The face of the high bank shows a +number of clean, round holes indiscriminately bored into the sand, as if the +place had just received a cannonading; but instead of war an atmosphere of +peace pervades the place in midsummer, when you are most likely to visit it. +Now that the young ones have flown from their nests that your arm can barely +reach through the tunnelled sand or clay, there can be little harm in +examining the feathers dropped from gulls, ducks, and other water-birds with +which the grassy home is lined. + +The bank swallow's nest, like the kingfisher's, which it resembles, is his +home as well. There he rests when tired of flying about in pursuit of insect +food. Perhaps a bird that has been resting in one of the tunnels, startled by +your innocent housebreaking, will fly out across your face, near enough for +you to see how unlike the other swallows he is: smaller, plainer, and with +none of their glinting steel-blues and buffs about him. With strong, swift +flight he rejoins his fellows, wheeling, skimming, darting through the air +above you, and uttering his characteristic "giggling twitter," that is one of +the cheeriest noises heard along the beach. In early October vast numbers of +these swallows may be seen in loose flocks along the Jersey coast, slowly +making their way South. Clouds of them miles in extent are recorded. + +Closely associated with the sand martin is the Rough-winged Swallow +(Stelgidopteryx serripennis), not to be distinguished from its companion on +the wing, but easily recognized by its dull-gray throat and the absence of the +brown breast-band when seen at close range. + + +CEDAR BIRD (Ampelis cedrorum) Waxwing family + +Called also: CEDAR WAXWING [AOU 1998]; CHERRY-BIRD; CANADA ROBIN; RECOLLET + +Length -- 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. +Male -- Upper parts rich grayish brown, with plum-colored tints + showing through the brown on crest, throat, breast, wings, and + tail. A velvety-black line on forehead runs through the eye and + back of crest. Chin black; crest conspicuous; breast lighter + than the back, and shading into yellow underneath. Wings have + quill-shafts of secondaries elongated, and with brilliant + vermilion tips like drops of sealing-wax, rarely seen on tail + quills, which have yellow bands across the end. +Female -- With duller plumage, smaller crest, and narrower + tail-band. +Range -- North America, from northern British provinces to + Central America in winter. +Migrations -- A roving resident, without fixed seasons for + migrating. + +As the cedar birds travel about in great flocks that quickly exhaust their +special food in a neighborhood, they necessarily lead a nomadic life -- here +to-day, gone to-morrow -- and, like the Arabs, they "silently steal away." It +is surprising how very little noise so great a company of these birds make at +any time. That is because they are singularly gentle and refined; soft of +voice, as they are of color, their plumage suggesting a fine Japanese +water-color painting on silk, with its beautiful sheen and exquisitely blended +tints. + +One listens in vain for a song; only a lisping "Twee-twee-ze," or "a dreary +whisper," as Minot calls their low-toned communications with each other, +reaches our ears from their high perches in the cedar trees, where they sit, +almost motionless hours at a time, digesting the enormous quantities of +juniper and whortleberries, wild cherries, worms, and insects upon which they +have gormandized. + +Nuttall gives the cedar birds credit for excessive politeness to each other. +He says he has often seen them passing a worm from one to another down a whole +row of beaks and back again before it was finally eaten. + +When nesting time arrives -- that is to say, towards the end of the summer -- +they give up their gregarious habits and live in pairs, billing and kissing +like turtle-doves in the orchard or wild crabtrees, where a flat, bulky nest +is rather carelessly built of twigs, grasses, feathers, strings -- any odds +and ends that may be lying about. The eggs are usually four, white tinged with +purple and spotted with black. + +Apparently they have no moulting season; their plumage is always the same, +beautifully neat and full-feathered. Nothing ever hurries or flusters them, +their greatest concern apparently being, when they alight, to settle +themselves comfortably between their over-polite friends, who are never guilty +of jolting or crowding. Few birds care to take life so easily, not to say +indolently. + +Among the French Canadians they are called Recollet, from the color of their +crest resembling the hood of the religious order of that name. Every region +the birds pass through, local names appear to be applied to them, a few of the +most common of which are given above. + +Of the three waxwings known to scientists, two are found in America, and the +third in Japan, + + +BROWN CREEPER (Certhia familiaris americana) Creeper family + +Length -- 5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Brown above, varied with ashy-gray stripes and + small, lozenge-shaped gray mottles. Color lightest on head, + increasing in shade to reddish brown near tail. Tail paler + brown and long; wings brown and barred with whitish. Beneath + grayish white. Slender, curving bill. +Range -- United States and Canada, east of Rocky Mountains. +Migrations -- April. September. Winter resident + +This little brown wood sprite, the very embodiment of virtuous diligence, is +never found far from the nuthatches, titmice, and kinglets, though not +strictly in their company, for he is a rather solitary bird. Possibly he +repels them by being too exasperatingly conscientious. + +Beginning at the bottom of a rough-barked tree (for a smooth bark conceals no +larvae, the creeper silently climbs upward in a sort of spiral, now lost to +sight on the opposite side of the tree, then reappearing just where he is +expected to, flitting back a foot or two, perhaps, lest he overlooked a single +spider egg, but never by any chance leaving a tree until conscience approves +of his thoroughness. And yet with all this painstaking workman's care, it +takes him just about fifty seconds to finish a tree. Then off he flits to the +base of another, to repeat the spiral process. Only rarely does he adopt the +woodpecker process of partly flitting, partly rocking his way with the help of +his tail straight up one side of the tree. + +Yet this little bird is not altogether the soulless drudge he appears. In the +midst of his work, uncheered by summer sunshine, and clinging with numb toes +to the tree-trunk some bitter cold day, he still finds some tender emotion +within him to voice in a "wild, sweet song" that is positively enchanting at +such a time. But it is not often this song is heard south of his nesting +grounds. + +The brown creeper's plumage is one of Nature's most successful feats of +mimicry -- an exact counterfeit in feathers of the brown-gray bark on which +the bird lives. And the protective coloring is carried out in the nest +carefully tucked under a piece of loosened bark in the very heart of the tree. + + +PINE SISKIN (Spinus pinus) Finch family + +Called also: PINE FINCH; PINE LINNET + +Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. Over an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Olive-brown and gray above, much streaked and + striped with very dark brown everywhere. Darkest on head and + back. Lower back, base of tail, and wing feathers pale + sulphur-yellow. Under parts very light buff brown, heavily + streaked. +Range -- North America generally. Most common in north latitudes. + Winters south to the Gulf of Mexico. +Migrations -- Erratic winter visitor from October to April. + Uncommon in summer. + +A small grayish-brown brindle bird, relieved with touches of yellow on its +back, wings, and tail, may be seen some winter morning roving on the lawn from +one evergreen tree to another, clinging to the pine cones and peering +attentively between the scales before extracting the kernels. It utters a +call-note so like the English sparrow's that you are surprised when you look +up into the tree to find it comes from a stranger. The pine siskin is an +erratic visitor, and there is always the charm of the unexpected about its +coming near our houses that heightens our enjoyment of its brief stay. + +As it flies downward from the top of the spruce tree to feed upon the brown +seeds still clinging to the pigweed and goldenrod stalks sticking out above +the snow by the roadside, it dips and floats through the air like its charming +little cousin, the goldfinch. They have several characteristics in common +besides their flight and their fondness for thistles. Far at the north, where +the pine siskin nests in the top of the evergreens, his sweet-warbled +love-song is said to be like that of our "wild canary's," only with a +suggestion of fretfulness in the tone. + +Occasionally some one living in an Adirondack or other mountain camp reports +finding the nest and hearing the siskin sing even in midsummer; but it is, +nevertheless, considered a northern species, however its erratic habits may +sometimes break through the ornithologist's traditions. + + +SMITH'S PAINTED LONGSPUR (Calcarius pictus) Finch family + +[Called also: SMITH'S LONGSPUR, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 6.5 inches. About the size of a large English sparrow. +Male and Female -- Upper parts marked with black, brown, and + white, like a sparrow; brown predominant. Male bird with more + black about head, shoulders, and tail feathers, and a whitish + patch, edged with black, under the eye. Underneath pale brown, + shading to buff. Hind claw or spur conspicuous. +Range -- Interior of North America, from the arctic coast to + Illinois and and Texas; Migrations -- Winter visitor. Without + fixed season. + +Confined to a narrower range than the Lapland longspur, this bird, quite +commonly found on the open prairie districts of the middle West in winter, is, +nevertheless, so very like its cousin that the same description of their +habits might very well answer for both. Indeed, both these birds are often +seen in the same flock. Larks and the ubiquitous sparrows, too, intermingle +with them with the familiarity that only the starvation rations of midwinter, +and not true sociability, can effect; and, looking out upon such a +heterogeneous flock of brown birds as they are feeding together on the frozen +ground, only the trained field ornithologist would find it easy to point out +the painted longspurs. + +Certain peculiarities are noticeable, however. Longspurs squat while resting; +then, when flushed, they run quickly and lightly, and "rise with a sharp +click, repeated several times in quick succession, and move with an easy, +undulating motion for a short distance, when they alight very suddenly, +seeming to fall perpendicularly several feet to the ground." Another +peculiarity of their flight is their habit of flying about in circles, to and +fro, keeping up a constant chirping or call. It is only in the mating season, +when we rarely hear them, that the longspurs have the angelic manner of +singing as they fly, like the skylark. The colors of the males, among the +several longspurs, may differ widely, but the indistinctly marked females are +so like each other that only their mates, perhaps, could tell them apart. + + +LAPLAND LONGSPUR (Calcarius lapponicus) Finch family + +Called also: LAPLAND SNOWBIRD; LAPLAND LARK BUNTING + +Length -- 6.5 to 7 inches. trifle larger than the English sparrow. +Male -- Color varies with season. Winter plumage: Top of head + black, with rusty markings, all feathers being tipped with + white. Behind and below the eye rusty black. Breast and + underneath grayish white faintly streaked with black. Above + reddish brown with black markings. Feet, which are black, have + conspicuous, long hind claws or spur. +Female -- Rusty gray above, less conspicuously marked. Whitish + below. +Range -- Circumpolar regions; northern United States; occasional + in Middle States; abundant in winter as far as Kansas and the + Rocky Mountains. +Migrations -- Winter visitors, rarely resident, and without a + Fixed season. + +This arctic bird, although considered somewhat rare with us, when seen at all +in midwinter is in such large flocks that, before its visit in the +neighborhood is ended, and because there are so few other birds about, it +becomes delightfully familiar as it nimbly runs over the frozen ground, +picking up grain that has blown about from the barn, when the seeds of the +field are buried under snow. This lack of fear through sharp hunger, that +often drives the shyest of the birds to our very doors in winter, is as +pathetic as it is charming. Possibly it is not so rare a bird as we think, for +it is often mistaken for some of the sparrows, the shore larks, and the snow +buntings, that it not only resembles, but whose company it frequently keeps, +or for one of the other longspurs. + +At all seasons of the year a ground bird, you may readily identify the Lapland +longspur by its tracks through the snow, showing the mark of the long hind +claw or spur. In summer we know little or nothing about it, for, with the +coming of the flowers, it is off to the far north, where, we are told, it +depresses its nest in a bed of moss upon the ground, and lines it with fur +shed from the coat of the arctic fox. + + +CHIPPING SPARROW (Spizella socialis) Finch family + +Called also: CHIPPY; HAIR-BIRD; CHIP-BIRD; SOCIAL SPARROW + +Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. An inch shorter than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Under the eye, on the back of the neck, underneath, and + on the lower back ash-gray. Gray stripe over the eye, and a + blackish brown one apparently through it. Dark red-brown crown. + Back brown, slightly rufous, and feathers streaked with black. + Wings and tail dusty brown. Wing-bars not conspicuous. Bill + black. +Female -- Lacks the chestnut color on the crown, which is + Streaked with black. In winter the frontlet is black. Bill + brownish. +Range -- North America, from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico + And westward to the Rockies. Winters in Gulf States and Mexico. + Most common in eastern United States. +Migrations -- April. October. Common summer resident, many birds + remaining all the year from southern New England southward. + +Who does not know this humblest, most unassuming little neighbor that comes +hopping to our very doors; this mite of a bird with "one talent" that it so +persistently uses all the day and every day throughout the summer? Its high, +wiry trill, like the buzzing of the locust, heard in the dawn before the sky +grows even gray, or in the middle of the night, starts the morning chorus; and +after all other voices are hushed in the evening, its tremolo is the last +bed-song to come from the trees. But however monotonous such cheerfulness +sometimes becomes when we are surfeited with real songs from dozens of other +throats, there are long periods of midsummer silence that it punctuates most +acceptably. + +Its call-note, chip! chip! from which several of its popular names are +derived, is altogether different from the trill which must do duty as a song +to express love, contentment, everything that so amiable a little nature might +feel impelled to voice. + +But with all its virtues, the chippy shows lamentable weakness of character in +allowing its grown children to impose upon it, as it certainly does. In every +group of these birds throughout the summer we can see young ones (which we may +know by the black line-stripes on their breasts) hopping around after their +parents, that are often no larger or more able-bodied than they, and teasing +to be fed; drooping their wings to excite pity for a helplessness that they do +not possess when the weary little mother hops away from them, and still +persistently chirping for food until she weakly relents, returns to them, +picks a seed from the ground and thrusts it down the bill of the sauciest +teaser in the group. With two such broods in a season the chestnut feathers on +the father's jaunty head might well turn gray. + +Unlike most of the sparrows, the little chippy frequents high trees, where its +nest is built quite as often as in the low bushes of the garden. The +horse-hair, which always lines the grass" up that holds its greenish-blue, +speckled eggs, is alone responsible for the name hair-bird, and not the +chippy's hair-like trill, as some suppose. + + +ENGLISH SPARROW (Passer domesticus) Finch family + +Called also: HOUSE SPARROW [AOU 1998] + +Length -- 6.33 inches. +Male -- Ashy above, with black and chestnut stripes on back and + shoulders. Wings have chestnut and white bar, bordered by faint + black line. Gray crown, bordered from the eye backward and on + the nape by chestnut. Middle of throat and breast black. + Underneath grayish white. +Female -- Paler; wing-bars indistinct, and without the black + marking on throat and breast. +Range -- Around the world. Introduced and naturalized in America, + Australia, New Zealand. +Migrations -- Constant resident. + +"Of course, no self-respecting ornithologist will condescend to enlarge his +list by counting in the English sparrow -- too pestiferous to mention," writes +Mr. H. E. Parkhurst, and yet of all bird neighbors is any one more within the +scope of this book than the audacious little gamin that delights in the +companion ship of humans even in their most noisy city thoroughfares? + +In a bulletin issued by the Department of Agriculture it is shown that the +progeny of a single pair of these sparrows might amount to 275,716,983,698 in +ten years! Inasmuch as many pairs were liberated in the streets of Brooklyn, +New York, in 1851, when the first importation was made, the day is evidently +not far off when these birds, by no means meek, "shall inherit the earth." + +In Australia Scotch thistles, English sparrows, and rabbits, three most +unfortunate importations, have multiplied with equal rapidity until serious +alarm fills the minds of the colonists. But in England a special committee +appointed by the House of Commons to investigate the character of the alleged +pest has yet to learn whether the sparrow's services as an insect-destroyer do +not outweigh the injury it does to fruit and grain. + + +FIELD SPARROW (Spizella pusilla) Finch family + +Called also: FIELD BUNTING; WOOD SPARROW; BUSH SPARROW + +Length -- 5.5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Chestnut crown. Upper back bright chestnut, finely + streaked with black and ashy brown. Lower back more grayish. + Whitish wing-bars. Cheeks, line over the eye, throat, pale + brownish drab. Tail long. Underneath grayish white, tinged with + palest buff on breast and sides. Bill reddish. +Female -- Paler; the crown edged with grayish. +Range -- North America, from British provinces to the Gulf, and + westward to the plains. Winters from Illinois and Virginia + southward. Migrations -- April. November. Common summer + resident. + +Simply because both birds have chestnut crowns, the field sparrow is often +mistaken for the dapper, sociable chippy; and, no doubt because it loves such +heathery, grassy pastures as are dear to the vesper sparrow, and has bay wings +and a sweet song, these two cousins also are often confused. The field sparrow +has a more reddish-brown upper back than any of its small relatives; the +absence of streaks on its breast and of the white tail quills so conspicuous +in the vesper sparrow's flight, sufficiently differentiate the two birds, +while the red bill of the field sparrow is a positive mark of identification. + +This bird of humble nature, that makes the scrubby pastures and uplands +tuneful from early morning until after sunset, flies away with exasperating +shyness as you approach. Alighting on a convenient branch, he lures you on +with his clear, sweet song. Follow him, and he only hops about from bush to +bush, farther and farther away, singing as he goes a variety of strains, which +is one of the bird's peculiarities. The song not only varies in individuals, +but in different localities, which may be one reason why no two ornithologists +record it alike. Doubtless the chief reason for the amusing differences in the +syllables into which the songs of birds are often translated in the books, is +that the same Notes actually sound differently to different individuals. Thus, +to people in Massachusetts the white-throated sparrow seems to say, +"Pea-bod-y, Pea-bod-y, Pea-bod-y!" while good British subjects beyond the New +England border hear him sing quite distinctly, "Sweet Can-a-da, Can-a-da, +Can-a-da!" But however the opinions as to the syllables of the field sparrow's +song may differ, all are agreed as to its exquisite quality, that resembles +the vesper sparrow's tender, sweet melody. The song begins with three soft, +wild whistles, and ends with a series of trills and quavers that gradually +melt away into silence: a serene and restful strain as soothing as a hymn. +Like the vesper sparrows, these birds sometimes build a plain, grassy nest, +unprotected by over hanging bush, flat upon the ground. Possibly from a +prudent tear of field-mice and snakes, the little mother most frequently lays +her bluish-white, rufous -- marked eggs in a nest placed in a bush of a bushy +field. Hence John Burroughs has called the bird the ''bush sparrow." + + +FOX SPARROW (Passerella ilica) Finch family + +Called also: FOX-COLORED SPARROW; FERRUGINOUS FINCH; FOXY FINCH + +Length -- 6.5 to 7.25 inches. Nearly an inch longer than the + English sparrow. +Male and Female -- Upper parts reddish brown, varied with ash + gray, brightest on lower back, wings, and tail. Bluish slate + about the head. Underneath whitish; the throat, breast, and + sides heavily marked with arrow-heads and oblong dashes of + reddish brown and blackish. +Range -- Alaska and Manitoba to southern United States. Winters + chiefly south of Illinois and Virginia. Occasional stragglers + remain north most of the winter. +Migrations -- March. November. Most common in the migrations. + +There will be little difficulty in naming this largest, most plump and reddish +of all the sparrows, whose fox-colored feathers, rather than any malicious +cunning of its disposition, are responsible for the name it bears. The male +bird is incomparably the finest singer of its gifted family. His faint tseep +call-note gives no indication of his vocal powers that some bleak morning in +early March suddenly send a thrill of pleasure through you. It is the most +welcome "glad surprise" of all the spring. Without a preliminary twitter or +throat-clearing of any sort, the full, rich, luscious tones, with just a tinge +of plaintiveness in them, are poured forth with spontaneous abandon. Such a +song at such a time is enough to summon anybody with a musical ear out of +doors under the leaden skies to where the delicious notes issue from the +leafless shrubbery by the roadside. Watch the singer until the song ends, when +he will quite likely descend among the dead leaves on the ground and scratch +among them like any barn-yard fowl, but somehow contriving to use both feet at +once in the operation, as no chicken ever could. He seems to take special +delight in damp thickets, where the insects with which he varies his seed diet +are plentiful. + +Usually the fox sparrows keep in small, loose flocks, apart by themselves, for +they are not truly gregarious; but they may sometimes be seen travelling in +company with their white-throated cousins. They are among the last birds to +leave us in the late autumn or winter. Mr. Bicknell says that they seem +indisposed to sing unless present in numbers. Indeed, they are little inclined +to absolute solitude at any time, for even in the nesting season quite a +colony of grassy nurseries may be found in the same meadow, and small +companies haunt the roadside shrubbery during the migrations. + + +GRASSHOPPER SPARROW (Ammodramus savannarum passerinus) Finch + family + +Called also: YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW + +Length -- 5 to 5.4 inches. About an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- A cream-yellow line over the eye; centre of + crown, shoulders, and lesser wing coverts yellowish. Head + blackish; rust-colored feathers, with small black spots on back + of the neck; an orange mark before the eye. All other upper + parts varied red, brown, cream, and black, with a drab wash. + Underneath brownish drab on breast, shading to soiled white, + and without streaks. Dusky, even, pointed tail feathers have + grayish-white outer margins. +Range -- Eastern North America, from British provinces to Cuba. + Winters south of the Carolinas. +Migrations -- April. October. Common summer resident. + +It is safe to say that no other common bird is so frequently overlooked as +this little sparrow, that keeps persistently to the grass and low bushes, and +only faintly lifts up a weak, wiry voice that is usually attributed to some +insect. At the bend of the wings only are the feathers really yellow, and even +this bright shade often goes unnoticed as the bird runs shyly through an old +dairy field or grassy pasture. You may all but step upon it before it takes +wing and exhibits itself on the fence-rail, which is usually as far from the +ground as it cares to go. If you are near enough to this perch you may +overhear the zee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e that has earned it the name of grasshopper +sparrow. If you persistently follow it too closely, away it flies, then +suddenly drops to the ground where a scrubby bush affords protection. A +curious fact about this bird is that after you have once become acquainted +with it, you find that instead of being a rare discovery, as you had supposed, +it is apt to be a common resident of almost every field you walk through. + + +SAVANNA SPARROW (Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna) Finch family + +Called also: SAVANNA BUNTING + +Length -- 5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Cheeks, space over the eye, and on the bend of + the wings pale yellow. General effect of the upper parts + brownish drab, streaked with black. Wings and tail dusky, the + outer webs of the feathers margined with buff. Under parts + white, heavily streaked with blackish and rufous, the marks on + breast feathers being wedge-shaped. In the autumn the plumage + is often suffused with a yellow tinge. +Range -- Eastern North America, from Hudson Bay to Mexico. + Winters south of Illinois and Virginia. +Migrations -- April. October. A few remain in sheltered marshes + at the north all winter. + +Look for the savanna sparrow in salt marshes, marshy or upland pastures, never +far inland, and if you see a sparrowy bird, unusually white and heavily +streaked beneath, and with pale yellow markings about the eye and on the bend +of the wing; you may still make several guesses at its identity before the +weak, little insect-like trill finally establishes it. Whoever can correctly +name every sparrow and warbler on sight is a person to be envied, if, indeed, +he exists at all. + +In the lowlands of Nova Scotia and, in fact, of all the maritime provinces, +this sparrow is the one that is perhaps most commonly seen. Every fence-rail +has one perched upon it, singing "Ptsip, ptsip, ptsip, ze-e-e-e-e" close to +the ear of the passer-by, who otherwise might not hear the low +grasshopper-like song. At the north the bird somehow loses the shyness that +makes it comparatively little known farther south. Depending upon the scrub +and grass to conceal it, you may almost tread upon it before it startles you +by its sudden rising with a whirring noise, only to drop to the ground again +just a few yards farther away, where it scuds among the underbrush and is lost +to sight Tall weeds and fence-rails are as high and exposed situations as it +is likely to select while singing. It is most distinctively a ground bird, and +flat upon the pasture or in a slightly hollowed cup it has the merest apology +for a nest. Only a few wisps of grass are laid in the cavity to receive the +pale-green eggs, that are covered most curiously with blotches of brown of +many shapes and tints. + + +SEASIDE SPARROW (Ammodramus maritimus) Finch family + +Called also: MEADOW CHIPPY; SEASIDE FINCH + +Length -- 6 inches. A shade smaller than the English sparrow. +Male and Female -- Upper parts dusky grayish or olivaceous brown, + inclining to gray on shoulders and on edges of some feathers. + Wings and tail darkest. Throat yellowish white, shading to gray + on breast, which is indistinctly mottled and streaked. A yellow + spot before the eye and on bend of the wing, the bird's + characteristic marks. Blunt tail. +Range -- Atlantic seaboard, from Georgia northward. Usually + Winters south of Virginia. +Migrations -- April. November. A few remain in sheltered marshes + all winter. + +The savanna, the swamp, the sharp-tailed, and the song sparrows may all +sometimes be found in the haunts of the seaside sparrow, but you may be +certain of finding the latter nowhere else than in the salt marshes within +sight or sound of the sea. It is a dingy little bird, with the least definite +coloring of all the sparrows that have maritime inclinations, with no rufous +tint in its feathers, and less distinct streakings on the breast than any of +them. It has no black markings on the back. + +Good-sized flocks of seaside sparrows live together in the marshes; but they +spend so much of their time on the ground, running about among the reeds and +grasses, whose seeds and insect parasites they feed upon, that not until some +unusual disturbance in the quiet place flushes them does the intruder suspect +their presence, Hunters after beach-birds, longshoremen, seaside cottagers, +and whoever follows the windings of a creek through the salt meadows to catch +crabs and eels in midsummer, are well acquainted with the "meadow chippies," +as the fishermen call them. They keep up a good deal of chirping, +sparrow-fashion, and have four or five notes resembling a song that is usually +delivered from a tall reed stalk, where the bird sways and balances until his +husky performance has ended, when down he drops upon the ground out of sight. +Sometimes, too, these notes are uttered while the bird flutters in the air +above the tops of the sedges. + + +SHARP-TAILED SPARROW (Ammodramus caudacutus) Finch family + +Length -- 5.25 to 5.85 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Upper parts brownish or grayish olive, the + back with black streaks, and gray edges to some feathers. A + gray line through centre of crown, which has maroon stripes; + gray ears enclosed by buff lines, one of which passes through + the eye and one on side of throat; brownish orange, or buff, on + sides of head. Bend of the wing yellow. Breast and sides pale + buff, distinctly streaked with black. Underneath whitish. Each + narrow quill of tail is sharply pointed. the outer ones + shortest. +Range -- Atlantic coast. Winters south of Virginia. +Migrations -- April. November. Summer resident. + +This bird delights in the company of the dull-colored seaside sparrow, whose +haunts in the salt marshes it frequents, especially the drier parts; but its +pointed tail-quills and more distinct markings are sufficient to prevent +confusion. Mr. J. Dwight, Jr., who has made a special study of maritime birds, +says of it: "It runs about among the reeds and grasses with the celerity of a +mouse, and it is not apt to take wing unless closely pressed." (Wilson +credited it with the nimbleness of a sandpiper.) "It builds its nest in the +tussocks on the bank of a ditch, or in the drift left by the tide, rather than +in the grassier sites chosen by its neighbors, the seaside sparrows." + +Only rarely does one get a glimpse of this shy little bird, that darts out of +sight like a flash at the first approach. Balancing on a cat-tail stalk or +perched upon a bit of driftwood, it makes a feeble, husky attempt to sing a +few notes; and during the brief performance the opera-glasses may search it +out successfully. While it feeds upon the bits of sea-food washed ashore to +the edge of the marshes, it gives us perhaps the best chance we ever get, +outside of a museum, to study the bird's characteristics of plumage. + +"Both the sharp-tailed and the seaside finches are crepuscular," says Dr. +Abbott, in "The Birds About Us." They run up and down the reeds and on the +water's edge long after most birds have gone to sleep. + + +SONG SPARROW (Melospiza fasciata) Finch family + +Length -- 6 to 6.5 inches. About the same size as the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Brown head, with three longitudinal gray bands + Brown stripe on sides of throat. Brownish-gray back streaked + With rufous. Underneath gray, shading to white, heavily + streaked with darkest brown. A black spot on breast. Wings + without bars. Tail plain grayish brown. +Range -- North America, from Fur Countries to the Gulf States. + Winters from southern Illinois and Massachusetts to the Gulf. +Migrations -- March. November. A few birds remain at the north + All the year. + +Here is a veritable bird neighbor, if ever there was one; at home in our +gardens and hedges, not often farther away than the roadside, abundant +everywhere during nearly every month in the year, and yet was there ever one +too many? There is scarcely an hour in the day, too, when its delicious, +ecstatic song may not be heard; in the darkness of midnight, just before dawn, +when its voice is almost the first to respond to the chipping sparrow's wiry +trill and the robin's warble; in the cool of the morning, the heat of noon, +the hush of evening -- ever the simple, homely, sweet melody that every good +American has learned to love in childhood. What the bird lacks in beauty it +abundantly makes up in good cheer. Not at all retiring, though never bold, it +chooses some conspicuous perch on a bush or tree to deliver its outburst of +song, and sings away with serene unconsciousness. Its artlessness is charming. +Thoreau writes in his "Summer" that the country girls in Massachusetts hear +the bird say: "Maids, maids, maids, hang on your teakettle, +teakettle-ettle-ettle." The call-note, a metallic chip, is equally +characteristic of the bird's irrepressible vivacity. It has still another +musical expression, however, a song more prolonged and varied than its usual +performance, that it seems to sing only on the wing. + +Of course, the song sparrow must sometimes fly upward, but whoever sees it fly +anywhere but downward into the thicket that it depends upon to conceal it from +too close inspection? By pumping its tail as it flies, it seems to acquire +more than the ordinary sparrow's velocity. + +Its nest, which is likely to be laid flat on the ground, except where +field-mice are plentiful (in which case it is elevated into the crotch of a +bush), is made of grass, strips of bark, and leaves, and lined with finer +grasses and hair. Sometimes three broods may be reared in a season, but even +the cares of providing insects and seeds enough for so many hungry babies +cannot altogether suppress the cheerful singer. The eggs are grayish white, +speckled and clouded with lavender and various shades of brown. + +In sparsely settled regions the song sparrows seem to show a fondness for +moist woodland thickets, possibly because their tastes are insectivorous. But +it is difficult to imagine the friendly little musician anything but a +neighbor. + + +SWAMP SONG SPARROW (Melospiza georgiana) Finch family + +Called also: SWAMP SPARROW [AOU 1998]; MARSH SPARROW; RED + GRASS-BIRD; SWAMP FINCH + +Length -- 5 to 5.8 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Forehead black; crown, which in winter has black stripes, + is always bright bay; line over the eye, sides of the neck + gray. Back brown, striped with various shades. Wing. edges and + tail reddish brown. Mottled gray underneath inclining to white + on the chin. +Female -- Without black forehead and stripes on head. +Range -- North America, from Texas to Labrador. +Migrations -- April. October. A few winter at the north. + +In just such impenetrable retreats as the marsh wrens choose, another wee +brown bird may sometimes be seen springing up from among the sedges, singing a +few sweet notes as it flies and floats above them, and then suddenly +disappearing into the grassy tangle. It is too small, and its breast is not +streaked enough to be a song sparrow, neither are their songs alike; it has +not the wren's peculiarities of bill and tail, Its bright-bay crown and +sparrowy markings finally identify it. A suggestion of the bird's watery home +shows itself in the liquid quality of its simple, sweet note, stronger and +sweeter than the chippy's, and repeated many times almost like a trill that +seems to trickle from the marsh in a little rivulet of song. The sweetness is +apt to become monotonous to all but the bird itself, that takes evident +delight in its performance. In the spring, when flocks of swamp sparrows come +north, how they enliven the marshes and waste places. And yet the song, simple +as it is, is evidently not uttered altogether without effort, if the +tail-spreading and teetering of the body after the manner of the ovenbird, are +any indications of exertion. + +Nuttall says of these birds: "They thread their devious way with the same +alacrity as the rail, with whom, indeed, they are often associated in +neighborhood. In consequence of this perpetual brushing through sedge and +bushes, their feathers are frequently so worn that their tails appear almost +like those of rats." + +But the swamp sparrows frequently belie their name, and, especially in the +South, live in dry fields, worn-out pasture lands with scrubby, weedy patches +in them. They live upon seeds of grasses and berries, but Dr. Abbott has +detected their special fondness for fish -- not fresh fish particularly, but +rather such as have lain in the sun for a few days and become dry as a chip. +Their nest is placed on the ground, sometimes in a tussock of grass or roots +of an upturned tree quite surrounded by water. Four or five soiled white eggs +with reddish-brown spots are laid usually twice in 2 season. + + +TREE SPARROW (Spizella monticola) Finch family + +Called also: CANADA SPARROW; WINTER CHIPPY; TREE BUNTING; WINTER + CHIP-BIRD; ARCTIC CHIPPER + +Length -- 6 to 6.35 inches. About the same size as the English + sparrow. +Male -- Crown of head bright chestnut. Line over the eye, cheeks, + throat, and breast gray, the breast with an indistinct black + spot on centre. Brown back, the feathers edged with black and + buff. Lower back pale grayish brown. Two whitish bars across + dusky wings; tail feathers bordered with grayish white. + Underneath whitish. +Female -- Smaller and less distinctly marked. +Range -- North America, from Hudson Bay to the Carolinas, and + westward to the plains. +Migrations -- October. April. Winter resident. + +A revised and enlarged edition of the friendly little chipping sparrow, that +hops to our very doors for crumbs throughout the mild weather, comes out of +British America at the beginning of winter to dissipate much of the winter's +dreariness by his cheerful twitterings. Why he should have been called a tree +sparrow is a mystery, unless because he does not frequent trees +-- a reason with sufficient plausibility to commend the name to several of +the early ornithologists, who not infrequently called a bird precisely what it +was not. The tree sparrow actually does not show half the preference for trees +that its familiar little counterpart does, but rather keeps to low bushes when +not on the ground, where we usually find it. It does not crouch upon the +ground like the chippy, but with a lordly carriage holds itself erect as it +nimbly runs over the frozen crust. Sheltered from the high, wintry winds in +the furrows and dry ditches of ploughed fields, a loose flock of these active +birds keep up a merry hunt for fallen seeds and berries, with a belated beetle +to give the grain a relish. As you approach the feeding ground, one bird gives +a shrill alarm-cry, and instantly five times as many birds as you suspected +were in the field take wing and settle down in the scrubby undergrowth at the +edge of the woods or by the wayside. No still cold seems too keen for them to +go a-foraging; but when cutting winds blow through the leafless thickets the +scattered remnants of a flock seek the shelter of stone walls, hedges, barns, +and cozy nooks about the house and garden. It is in mid-winter that these +birds grow most neighborly, although even then they are distinctly less +sociable than their small chippy cousins. + +By the first of March, when the fox sparrow and the bluebird attract the +lion's share of attention by their superior voices, we not infrequently are +deaf to the modest, sweet little strain that answers for the tree sparrow's +love-song. Soon after the bird is in full voice, away it goes with its flock +to their nesting ground in Labrador or the Hudson Bay region. It builds, +either on the ground or not far from it, a nest of grasses, rootlets, and +hair, without which no true chippy counts its home complete. + + +VESPER SPARROW (Poocaetes gramineus) Finch family + +Called also: BAY-WINGED BUNTING; GRASSFINCH; GRASSBIRD + +Length -- 5.75 to 6.25 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Brown above, streaked and varied with gray. + Lesser wing coverts bright rufous. Throat and breast whitish, + striped with dark brown. Underneath plain soiled white. Outer + tail-quills, which are its special mark of identification, are + partly white, but apparently wholly white a.s the bird flies. +Range -- North America, especially common in eastern parts from + Hudson Bay to Gulf of Mexico. Winters south of Virginia. +Migrations -- April. October. Common summer resident. + +Among the least conspicuous birds, sparrows are the easiest to classify for +that very reason, and certain prominent features of the half dozen commonest +of the tribe make their identification simple even to the merest novice. The +distinguishing marks of this sparrow that haunts open, breezy pasture lands +and country waysides are its bright, reddish-brown wing coverts, prominent +among its dingy, pale brownish-gray feathers, and its white tail-quills, shown +as the bird flies along the road ahead of you to light upon the fence-rail. It +rarely flies higher, even to sing its serene, pastoral strain, restful as the +twilight, of which, indeed, it seems to be the vocal expression. How different +from the ecstatic outburst of the song sparrow! Pensive, but not sad, its +long-drawn silvery notes continue in quavers that float off unended like a +trail of mist. The song is suggestive of the thoughts that must come at +evening to some New England saint of humble station after a well-spent, +soul-uplifting day. + +But while the vesper sparrow sings oftenest and most sweetly in the late +afternoon and continues singing until only he and the rose-breasted grosbeak +break the silence of the early night, his is one of the first voices to join +the morning chorus. No "early worm," however, tempts him from his grassy nest, +for the seeds in the pasture lands and certain tiny insects that live among +the grass furnish meals at all hours. He simply delights in the cool, still +morning and evening hours and in giving voice to his enjoyment of them. + +The vesper sparrow is preeminently a grass-bird. It first opens its eyes on +the world in a nest neatly woven of grasses, laid on the ground among the +grass that shelters it and furnishes it with food and its protective coloring. +Only the grazing cattle know how many nests and birds are hidden in their +pastures. Like the meadowlarks, their presence is not even suspected until a +flock is flushed from its feeding ground, only to return to the spot when you +have passed on your way. Like the meadowlark again, the vesper sparrow +occasionally sings as it soars upward from its grassy home. + + +WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW (Zonotrichia leucophrys) Finch family + +Length -- 7 inches. A little larger than the English sparrow. +Male -- White head, with four longitudinal black lines marking + off a crown, the black-and-white stripes being of about equal + width. Cheeks, nape, and throat gray. Light gray underneath, + with some buff tints. Back dark grayish brown. some feathers + margined with gray. Two interrupted white bars across wings. + Plain, dusky tail; total effect, a clear ashen gray. +Female -- With rusty head inclining to gray on crown. Paler + throughout than the male. +Range -- From high mountain ranges of western United States (more + rarely on Pacific slope) to Atlantic Ocean, and from Labrador + to Mexico. Chiefly south of Pennsylvania. +Migrations -- October. April. Irregular migrant in Northern + States. A winter resident elsewhere. + +The large size and handsome markings of this aristocratic-looking Northern +sparrow would serve to distinguish him at once, did he not often consort with +his equally fine-looking white-throated cousins while migrating, and so too +often get overlooked. Sparrows are such gregarious birds that it is well to +scrutinize every flock with especial care in the spring and autumn, when the +rarer migrants are passing. This bird is more common in the high altitudes of +the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains than elsewhere in the United States. +There in the lonely forest it nests in low bushes or on the ground, and sings +its full love song, as it does in the northern British provinces, along the +Atlantic coast; but during the migrations it favors us only with selections +from its repertoire. Mr. Ernest Thompson says, "Its usual song is like the +latter half of the white-throat's familiar refrain, repeated a number of times +with a peculiar, sad cadence and in a clear, soft whistle that is +characteristic of the group." "The song is the loudest and most plaintive of +all the sparrow songs," says John Burroughs. "It begins with the words fe-u, +fe-u, fe-u, and runs off into trills and quavers like the song sparrow's, only +much more touching." Colorado miners tell that this sparrow, like its +white-throated relative, sings on the darkest nights. Often a score or more +birds are heard singing at once after the habit of the European nightingales, +which, however, choose to sing only in the moonlight. + + +WHITE-THROATED SPARROW (Zonotrichia albicollis) Finch family + +Called also: PEABODY BIRD; CANADA SPARROW + +Length -- 6.75 to 7 inches. Larger than the English sparrow. +Male and Female -- A black crown divided by narrow white line. + Yellow spot before the eye, and a white line, apparently + running through it, passes backward to the nape. Conspicuous + white throat. Chestnut back, varied with black and whitish. + Breast gray, growing lighter underneath. Wings edged with + rufous and with two white cross-bars. +Range -- Eastern North America. Nests from Michigan and + Massachusetts northward to Labrador. Winters from southern New + England to Florida. +Migrations -- April. October. Abundant during migrations, and in + many States a winter resident. + +"I-I, Pea-body, Pea-body, Pea-body," are the syllables of the white-throat's +song heard by the good New Englanders, who have a tradition that you must +either be a Peabody or a nobody there; while just over the British border the +bird is distinctly understood to say, "Swee-e-e-t Can-a-da, Can-a-da, Can-a +da." "All day, whit-tle-ing, whit-tle-ing, whit-tle-ing," the Maine people +declare he sings; and Hamilton Gibson told of a perplexed farmer, Peverly by +name, who, as he stood in the field undecided as to what crop to plant, +clearly heard the bird advise, "Sow wheat, Pev-er-ly, Pev-er-ly, Pev-er-ly." +Such divergence of opinion, which is really slight compared with the verbal +record of many birds' songs, only goes to show how little the sweetness of +birds' music, like the perfume of a rose, depends upon a name. + +In a family not distinguished for good looks, the white-throated sparrow is +conspicuously handsome, especially after the spring moult. In midwinter the +feathers grow dingy and the markings indistinct; but as the season advances, +his colors are sure to brighten perceptibly, and before he takes the northward +journey in April, any little lady sparrow might feel proud of the attentions +of so fine-looking and sweet-voiced a lover. The black, white, and yellow +markings on his head are now clear and beautiful. His figure is plump and +aristocratic. + +These sparrows are particularly sociable travellers, and cordially welcome +many stragglers to their flocks -- not during the migrations only, but even +when winter's snow affords only the barest gleanings above it. Then they +boldly peck about the dog's plate by the kitchen door and enter the barn-yard, +calling their feathered friends with a sharp tseep to follow them. Seeds and +insects are their chosen food, and were they not well wrapped in an adipose +coat under their feathers, there must be many a winter night when they would +go shivering, supperless, to their perch. + +In the dark of midnight one may sometimes hear the white-throat softly singing +in its dreams. + + + +GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDS + + Tree Swallow + Ruby-throated Humming-bird + Golden-crowned Kinglet + Ruby-crowned Kinglet + Solitary Vireo + Red-eyed Vireo + White-eyed Vireo + Warbling Vireo + Ovenbird + Worm-eating Warbler + Acadian Flycatcher + Yellow-bellied Flycatcher + Black-throated Green Warbler + +Look also among the Olive-brown Birds, especially for the +Cuckoos, Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; and look in the +yellow group, many of whose birds are olive also. See also +females of the Red Crossbill, Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, +Summer Tanager. + +GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDS + + +TREE SWALLOW (Tachycineta bicolor) Swallow family + +Called also: WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW + +Length -- 5 to 6 inches. A little shorter than the English + sparrow, but apparently much larger because of its wide wing + spread. +Male -- Lustrous dark steel-green above; darker and shading into + black on wings and tail, which is forked. Under parts soft + white. +Female -- Duller than male. +Range -- North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. +Migrations -- End of March. September or later. Summer resident. + +"The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times: and the +turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their +coming." -- Jeremiah, viii. 7. + +The earliest of the family to appear in the spring, the tree swallow comes +skimming over the freshly ploughed fields with a wide sweep of the wings, in +what appears to be a perfect ecstasy of flight. More shy of the haunts of man, +and less gregarious than its cousins, it is usually to be seen during +migration flying low over the marshes, ponds, and streams with a few chosen +friends, keeping up an incessant warbling twitter while performing their +bewildering and tireless evolutions as they catch their food on the wing. +Their white breasts flash in the sunlight, and it is only when they dart near +you, and skim close along the surface of the water, that you discover their +backs to be not black, but rich, dark green, glossy to iridescence. + +It is probable that these birds keep near the waterways because their favorite +insects and wax-berries are more plentiful in such places: but this +peculiarity has led many people to the absurd belief that the tree swallow +buries itself under the mud of ponds in winter in a state of hibernation. No +bird's breathing apparatus is made to operate under mud. + +In unsettled districts these swallows nest in hollow trees, hence their name; +but with that laziness that forms a part of the degeneracy of civilization, +they now gladly accept the boxes about men's homes set up for the martins. +Thousands of these beautiful birds have been shot on the Long Island marshes +and sold to New York epicures for snipe. + + +RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD (Trochilus colubris) Humming-bird + Family + +[Called also RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 3.5 to 3.75 inches. A trifle over half as long as the + English sparrow. The smallest bird we have. +Male -- Bright metallic green above; wings and tail darkest, with + ruddy-purplish reflections and dusky-white tips on outer + tail quills. Throat and breast brilliant metallic -- red in one + light, orange flame in another, and dusky orange in another, + according as the light strikes the plumage. Sides greenish; + underneath lightest gray, with whitish border outlining the + brilliant breast. Bill long and needle-like. +Female -- Without the brilliant feathers on throat; darker gray + beneath. Outer tail-quills are banded with black and tipped + with white. +Range -- Eastern North America, from northern Canada to the Gulf + Of Mexico in summer. Winters in Central America. +Migrations -- May. October. Common summer resident. + +This smallest, most exquisite and unabashed of our bird neighbors cannot be +mistaken, for it is the only one of its kin found east of the plains and north +of Florida, although about four hundred species, native only to the New World, +have been named by scientists. How does it happen that this little tropical +jewel alone flashes about our Northern gardens? Does it never stir the spirit +of adventure and emulation in the glistening breasts of its stay-at-home +cousins in the tropics by tales of luxuriant tangles of honeysuckle and +clematis on our cottage porches; of deep-cupped trumpet-flowers climbing over +the walls of old-fashioned gardens, where larkspur, narcissus, roses, and +phlox, that crowd the box-edged beds, are more gay and honey-laden than their +little brains can picture? Apparently it takes only the wish to be in a place +to transport one of these little fairies either from the honeysuckle trellis +to the canna bed or from Yucatan to the Hudson. It is easy to see how to will +and to fly are allied in the minds of the humming-birds, as they are in the +Latin tongue. One minute poised in midair, apparently motionless before a +flower while draining the nectar from its deep cup -- though the humming of +its wings tells that it is suspended there by no magic -- the next instant it +has flashed out of sight as if a fairy's wand had made it suddenly invisible. +Without seeing the hummer, it might be, and often is, mistaken for a bee +improving the "shining hour." + +At evening one often hears of a "humming-bird" going the rounds of the garden, +but at this hour it is usually the sphinx-moth hovering above the flower-beds +-- the one other creature besides the bee for which the bird is ever mistaken. +The postures and preferences of this beautiful large moth make the mistake a +very natural one. + +The ruby-throat is strangely fearless and unabashed. It will dart among the +vines on the veranda while the entire household are assembled there, and add +its hum to that of the conversation in a most delightfully neighborly way. +Once a glistening little sprite, quite undaunted by the size of an audience +that sat almost breathless enjoying his beauty, thrust his bill into one calyx +after another on a long sprig of honeysuckle held in the hand. + +And yet, with all its friendliness -- or is it simply fearlessness? -- the +bird is a desperate duellist, and will lunge his deadly blade into the +jewelled breast of an enemy at the slightest provocation and quicker than +thought. All the heat of his glowing throat seems to be transferred to his +head while the fight continues, sometimes even to the death -- a cruel, but +marvellously beautiful sight as the glistening birds dart and tumble about +beyond the range of peace-makers. + +High up in a tree, preferably one whose knots and lichen-covered excrescences +are calculated to help conceal the nest that so cleverly imitates them, the +mother humming-bird saddles her exquisite cradle to a horizontal limb. She +lines it with plant down, fluffy bits from cat-tails, and the fronds of fern, +felting the material into a circle that an elm-leaf amply roofs over. Outside, +lichens or bits of bark blend the nest so harmoniously with its surroundings +that one may look long and thoroughly before discovering it. Two +infinitesimal, white eggs tax the nest accommodation to its utmost. + +In the mating season the female may be seen perching -- a posture one rarely +catches her gay lover in -- preening her dainty but sombre feathers with +ladylike nicety. The young birds do a great deal of perching before they gain +the marvellously rapid wing-motions of maturity, but they are ready to fly +within three weeks after they are hatched. By the time the trumpet-vine is in +bloom they dart and sip and utter a shrill little squeak among the flowers, in +company with the old birds. + +During the nest-building and incubation the male bird keeps so aggressively on +the defensive that he often betrays to a hitherto unsuspecting intruder the +location of his home. After the young birds have to be fed he is most diligent +in collecting food, that consists not alone of the sweet juices of flowers, as +is popularly supposed, but also of aphides and plant-lice that his +proboscis-like tongue licks off the garden foliage literally like a streak of +lightning. + +Both parents feed the young by regurgitation -- a process disgusting to the +human observer, whose stomach involuntarily revolts at the sight so welcome to +the tiny, squeaking, hungry birds. + + +RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET (Regulus calendula) Kinglet family + +Called also: RUBY-CROWNED WREN; RUBY-CROWNED WARBLER + +Length -- 4.25 to 4.5 inches. About two inches smaller than the + English sparrow. +Male -- Upper parts grayish olive-green, brighter nearer the + tail; wings and tail dusky, edged with yellowish olive. Two + whitish wing-bars. Breast and underneath light yellowish gray. + In the adult male a vermilion spot on crown of his ash-gray + head. +Female -- Similar, but without the vermilion crest. +Range -- North America. Breeds from northern United States + northward. Winters from southern limits of its breeding range + to Central America and Mexico. +Migrations -- October. April. Rarely a winter resident at the + North. Most common during its migrations. + +A trifle larger than the golden-crowned kinglet, with a vermilion crest +instead of a yellow and flame one, and with a decided preference for a warmer +winter climate, and the ruby-crown's chief distinguishing characteristics are +told. These rather confusing relatives would be less puzzling if it were the +habit of either to keep quiet long enough to focus the opera-glasses on their +crowns, which it only rarely is while some particularly promising haunt of +insects that lurk beneath the rough bark of the evergreens has to be +thoroughly explored. At all other times both kinglets keep up an incessant +fluttering and twinkling among the twigs and leaves at the ends of the +branches, jerking their tiny bodies from twig to twig in the shrubbery, +hanging head downward, like a nuthatch, and most industriously feeding every +second upon the tiny insects and larvae hidden beneath the bark and leaves. +They seem to be the feathered expression of perpetual motion. And how dainty +and charming these tiny sprites are! They are not at all shy; you may approach +them quite close if you will, for the birds are simply too intent on their +business to be concerned with yours. + +If a sharp lookout be kept for these ruby-crowned migrants, that too often +slip away to the south before we know they have come, we notice that they +appear about a fortnight ahead of the golden-crested species, since the mild, +soft air of our Indian summer is exactly to their liking. At this season there +is nothing in the bird's "thin, metallic call-note, like a vibrating wire," to +indicate that he is one of our finest songsters. But listen for him during the +spring migration, when a love-song is already ripening in his tiny throat. +What a volume of rich, lyrical melody pours from the Norway spruce, where the +little musician is simply practising to perfect the richer, fuller song that +he sings to his nesting mate in the far north! The volume is really +tremendous, coming from so tiny a throat. Those who have heard it in northern +Canada describe it as a flute-like and mellow warble full of intricate phrases +past the imitating. Dr. Coues says of it: "The kinglet's exquisite +vocalization defies description." + +Curiously enough, the nest of this bird, that is not at all rare, has been +discovered only six times. It would appear to be over large for the tiny bird, +until we remember that kinglets are wont to have a numerous progeny in their +pensile, globular home. It is made of light, flimsy material -- moss, strips +of bark, and plant fibre well knit together and closely lined with feathers, +which must be a grateful addition to the babies, where they are reared in +evergreens in cold, northern woods. + + +GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET (Regulus satrapa) Kinglet family + +Called also: GOLDEN-CROWNED GOLDCREST; FIERY CROWNED WREN. + +Length -- 4 to 4.25 inches. About two inches smaller than the + English sparrow. +Male -- Upper parts grayish olive-green; wings and tail dusky, + margined with olive-green. Underneath soiled whitish. Centre of + crown bright orange, bordered by yellow and en. closed by black + line. Cheeks gray; a whitish line over the eye. +Female -- Similar, but centre of crown lemon-yellow and more + grayish underneath. +Range -- North America generally. Breeds from northern United + States northward. Winters chiefly from North Carolina to + Central America, but many remain north all the year. +Migrations -- September. April. Chiefly a winter resident south + Of Canada. + +If this cheery little winter neighbor would keep quiet long enough, we might +have a glimpse of the golden crest that distinguishes him from his equally +lively cousin, the ruby-crowned; but he is so constantly flitting about the +ends of the twigs, peering at the bark for hidden insects, twinkling his wings +and fluttering among the evergreens with more nervous restlessness than a +vireo, that you may know him well before you have a glimpse of his tri-colored +crown. + +When the autumn foliage is all aglow with yellow and flame this tiny sprite +comes out of the north where neither nesting nor moulting could rob him of his +cheerful spirits. Except the humming-bird and the winter wren, he is the +smallest bird we have. And yet, somewhere stored up in his diminutive body, is +warmth enough to withstand zero weather. With evident enjoyment of the cold, +he calls out a shrill, wiry zee, zee, zee, that rings merrily from the pines +and spruces when our fingers are too numb to hold the opera glasses in an +attempt to follow his restless fittings from branch to branch. Is it one of +the unwritten laws of birds that the smaller their bodies the greater their +activity? + +When you see one kinglet about, you may be sure there are others not far away, +for, except in the nesting season, its habits are distinctly social, its +friendliness extending to the humdrum brown creeper, the chickadees, and the +nuthatches, in whose company it is often seen; indeed, it is likely to be in +almost any flock of the winter birds. They are a merry band as they go +exploring the trees together. The kinglet can hang upside down, too, like the +other acrobats, many of whose tricks he has learned; and it can pick off +insects from a tree with as business-like an air as the brown creeper, but +with none of that soulless bird's plodding precision. + +In the early spring, just before this busy little sprite leaves us to nest in +Canada or Labrador -- for heat is the one thing that he can't cheerfully +endure -- a gushing, lyrical song bursts from his tiny throat -- a song whose +volume is so out of proportion to the bird's size that Nuttall's +classification of kinglets with wrens doesn't seem far wrong after all. Only +rarely is a nest found so far south as the White Mountains. It is said to be +extraordinarily large for so small a bird but that need not surprise us when +we learn that as many as ten +creamy-white eggs, blotched with brown and lavender, are no uncommon number +for the pensile cradle to hold. How do the tiny parents contrive to cover so +many eggs and to feed such a nestful of fledglings? + + +SOLITARY VIREO (Vireo solitarius) Vireo or Greenlet family + +Called also: BLUE-HEADED VIREO [AOU 1998] + +Length -- 5.5 to 7 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Dusky olive above; head bluish gray, with a white line + around the eye, spreading behind the eye into a patch. Beneath + whitish, with yellow-green wash on the sides. Wings dusky + olive, with two distinct white bars. Tail dusky, some quills + edged with white. +Female -- Similar, but her head is dusky olive. +Range -- United States to plains, and the southern British + provinces. Winters in Florida and southward. +Migrations -- May. Early October. Common during migrations; more + rarely a summer resident south of Massachusetts. + +By no means the recluse that its name would imply, the solitary vireo, while a +bird of the woods, shows a charming curiosity about the stranger with +opera-glasses in hand, who has penetrated to the deep, swampy tangles, where +it chooses to live. Peering at you through the green undergrowth with an eye +that seems especially conspicuous because of its encircling white rim, it is +at least as sociable and cheerful as any member of its family, and Mr. +Bradford Torrey credits it with "winning tameness." "Wood-bird as it is," he +says, "it will sometimes permit the greatest familiarities. Two birds I have +seen, which allowed themselves to be stroked in the freest manner, while +sitting on the eggs, and which ate from my hand as readily as any pet canary." + +The solitary vireo also builds a pensile nest, swung from the crotch of a +branch, not so high from the ground as the yellow-throated vireos nor so +exquisitely finished, but still a beautiful little structure of pine-needles, +plant-fibre, dry leaves, and twigs, all lichen-lined and bound and rebound +with coarse spiders' webs. + +The distinguishing quality of this vireo's celebrated song is its tenderness: +a pure, serene uplifting of its loving, trustful nature that seems inspired by +a fine spirituality. + + +RED-EYED VIREO (Vireo olivaceus) Vireo or Greenlet family + +Called also: THE PREACHER + +Length -- 5.75 to 6.25 inches. A fraction smaller than the + English sparrow. +Male and Female -- Upper parts light olive-green; well-defined + slaty-gray cap, with black marginal line, below which, and + forming an exaggerated eyebrow, is a line of white. A brownish + band runs from base of bill through the eye. The iris is + ruby-red. Underneath white, shaded with light greenish yellow + on sides and on under tail and wing coverts. +Range -- United States to Rockies and northward. Wnters in + Central and South America. +Migrations -- April. October. Common summer resident. + +"You see it -- you know it -- do you hear me? Do you believe it?" is Wilson +Flagg's famous interpretation of the song of this commonest of all the vireos, +that you cannot mistake with such a key. He calls the bird the preacher from +its declamatory style; an up-and-down warble delivered with a rising +inflection at the close and followed by an impressive silence, as if the +little green orator were saying, "I pause for a reply." + +Notwithstanding its quiet coloring, that so closely resembles the leaves it +hunts among, this vireo is rather more noticeable than its relatives because +of its slaty cap and the black-and-white lines over its ruby eye, that, in +addition to the song, are its marked characteristics. + +Whether she is excessively stupid or excessively kind, the mother-vireo has +certainly won for herself no end of ridicule by allowing the cowbird to +deposit a stray egg in the exquisitely made, pensile nest, where her own tiny +white eggs are lying and though the young cowbird crowd and worry her little +fledglings and eat their dinner as fast as she can bring it in, no displeasure +or grudging is shown towards the dusky intruder that is sure to upset the +rightful heirs out of the nest before they are able to fly. + +In the heat of a midsummer noon, when nearly every other bird's voice is +hushed, and only the locust seems to rejoice in the fierce sunshine, the +little red-eyed vireo goes persistently about its business of gathering +insects from the leaves, not flitting nervously about like a warbler, or +taking its food on the wing like a flycatcher, but patiently and industriously +dining where it can, and singing as it goes. + +When a worm is caught it is first shaken against a branch to kill it before it +is swallowed. Vireos haunt shrubbery and trees with heavy foliage, all their +hunting, singing, resting, and home-building being done among the leaves -- +never on the ground. + + +WHITE-EYED VIREO (Vireo noveboracensis) Vireo or Greenlet family + +Male -- 5 to 5.3 inches. An inch shorter than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Upper parts bright olive-green, washed with + grayish. Throat and underneath white; the breast and sides + greenish yellow; wings have two distinct bars of yellowish + white. Yellow line from beak to and around the eye, which has a + white iris. Feathers of wings and tail brownish and edged with + yellow. +Range -- United States to the Rockies, and to the Gulf regions + And beyond in winter. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +"Pertest of songsters," the white-eyed vireo makes whatever neighborhood it +enters lively at once. Taking up a residence in the tangled shrubbery or +thickety undergrowth, it immediately begins to scold like a crotchety old +wren. It becomes irritated over the merest trifles -- a passing bumblebee, a +visit from another bird to its tangle, an unsuccessful peck at a gnat +-- anything seems calculated to rouse its wrath and set every feather on its +little body a-trembling, while it sharply snaps out what might perhaps be +freely constructed into "cuss-words." + +And yet the inscrutable mystery is that this virago meekly permits the lazy +cowbird to deposit an egg in its nest, and will patiently sit upon it, though +it is as large as three of her own tiny eggs; and when the little interloper +comes out from his shell the mother-bird will continue to give it the most +devoted care long after it has shoved her poor little starved babies out of +the nest to meet an untimely death in the smilax thicket below. + +An unusual variety of expression distinguishes this bird's voice from the +songs of the other vireos, which are apt to be monotonous, as they are +incessant. If you are so fortunate to approach the white-eyed vireo before he +suspects your presence, you may hear him amusing himself by jumbling together +snatches of the songs of the other birds in a sort of potpourri; or perhaps he +will be scolding or arguing with an imaginary foe, then dropping his voice and +talking confidentially to himself. Suddenly he bursts into a charming, simple +little song, as if the introspection had given him reason for real joy. All +these vocal accomplishments suggest the chat at once; but the minute your +intrusion is discovered the sharp scolding, that is fairly screamed at you +from an enraged little throat, leaves no possible shadow of a doubt as to the +bird you have disturbed. It has the most emphatic call and song to be heard in +the woods; it snaps its words off very short. "Chick-a-rer chick" is its usual +call-note, jerked out with great spitefulness. + +Wilson thus describes the jealously guarded nest: "This bird builds a very +neat little nest, often in the figure of an inverted cone; it is suspended by +the upper end of the two sides, on the circular bend of a prickly vine, a +species of smilax, that generally grows in low thickets. Outwardly it is +constructed of various light materials, bits of rotten wood, fibres of dry +stalks, of weeds, pieces of paper (commonly newspapers, an article almost +always found about its nest, so that some of my friends have given it the name +of the politician); all these materials are interwoven with the silk of the +caterpillars, and the inside is lined with fine, dry grass and hair." + + +WARBLING VIREO (Vireo gilvus) Vireo or Greenlet family + +Length -- 5.5 to 6 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Ashy olive-green above, with head and neck + ash-colored. Dusky line over the eye. Underneath whitish, + faintly washed with dull yellow, deepest on sides; no bars on + wings. +Range -- North America, from Hudson Bay to Mexico. +Migrations -- May. Late September or early October. Summer + resident. + +This musical little bird shows a curious preference for rows of trees in the +village street or by the roadside, where he can be sure of an audience to +listen to his rich, continuous warble. There is a mellowness about his voice, +which rises loud, but not altogether cheerfully, above the bird chorus, as if +he were a gifted but slightly disgruntled contralto. Too inconspicuously +dressed, and usually too high in the tree-top to be identified without +opera-glasses, we may easily mistake him by his voice for one of the warbler +family, which is very closely allied to the vireos. Indeed, this warbling +vireo seems to be the connecting link between them. + +Morning and afternoon, but almost never in the evening, we may hear him +rippling out song after song as he feeds on insects and berries about the +garden. But this familiarity lasts only until nesting time, for off he goes +with his little mate to some unfrequented lane near a wood until their family +is reared, when, with a perceptibly happier strain in his voice, he once more +haunts our garden and row of elms before taking the southern journey. + + +OVENBIRD (Seiurus aurocapillus) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: GOLDEN-CROWNED THRUSH; THE TEACHER; WOOD WAGTAIL; + GOLDEN-CROWNED WAGTAIL; GOLDEN-CROWNED ACCENTOR + +Length -- 6 to 6.15 inches. Just a shade smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Upper parts olive, with an orange-brown crown, + bordered by black lines that converge toward the bill. Under + parts white; breast spotted and streaked on the sides. White + eye-ring. +Range -- United States, to Pacific slope. +Migrations -- May. October. Common summer resident. + +Early in May you may have the good fortune to see this little bird of the +woods strutting in and out of the garden shrubbery with a certain mock +dignity, like a child wearing its father's boots. Few birds can walk without +appearing more or less ridiculous, and however gracefully and prettily it +steps, this amusing little wagtail is no exception. When seen at all -- which +is not often, for it is shy -- it is usually on the ground, not far from the +shrubbery or a woodland thicket, under which it will quickly dodge out of +sight at the merest suspicion of a footstep. To most people the bird is only a +voice calling, "TEACHER TEACHER. TEACHER, TEACHER, TEACHER!" as Mr. Burroughs +has interpreted the notes that go off in pairs like a series of little +explosions, softly at first, then louder and louder and more shrill until the +bird that you at first thought far away seems to be shrieking his penetrating +crescendo into your very ears. But you may look until you are tired before you +find him in the high, dry wood, never near water. + +In the driest parts of the wood, here the ground is thickly carpeted with dead +leaves, you may some day notice a little bunch of them, that look as if a +plant, in pushing its way up through the ground, had raised the leaves, +rootlets, and twigs a trifle. + +Examine the spot more carefully, and on one side you find an opening, and +within the ball of earth, softly lined with grass, lie four or five +cream-white, speckled eggs. It is only by a happy accident that this nest of +the ovenbird is discovered. The concealment could not be better. It is this +peculiarity of nest construction -- in shape like a Dutch oven -- that has +given the bird what DeKay considers its "trivial name." Not far from the nest +the parent birds scratch about in the leaves like diminutive barnyard fowls, +for the grubs and insects hiding under them. But at the first suspicion of an +intruder their alarm becomes pitiful. Panic-stricken, they become fairly limp +with fear, and drooping her wings and tail, the mother-bird drags herself +hither and thither over the ground. + +As utterly bewildered as his mate, the male darts, flies, and tumbles about +through the low branches, jerking and wagging his tail in nervous spasms until +you have beaten a double-quick retreat. + +In nesting time, at evening, a very few have heard the "luxurious nuptial +song" of the ovenbird; but it is a song to haunt the memory forever afterward. +Burroughs appears to be the first writer to record this "rare bit of bird +melody." "Mounting by easy flight to the top of the tallest tree," says the +author of "Wake-Robin," "the ovenbird launches into the air with a sort of +suspended, hovering flight, like certain of the finches, and bursts into a +perfect ecstasy of song -- clear, ringing, copious, rivalling the goldfinch's +in vivacity and the linnet's in melody." + + +WORM-EATING WARBLER (Helmintherus vermivorus) Wood Warbler family + +Length -- 5.50 inches. Less than an inch shorter than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Greenish olive above. Head yellowish brown, + With two black stripes through crown to the nape; also black + Lines from the eyes to neck. Under parts buffy and white. +Range -- Eastern parts of United States. Nests as far north as + southern Illinois and southern Connecticut. Winters in the Gulf + States and southward. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +In the Delaware Valley and along the same parallel, this inconspicuous warbler +is abundant, but north of New Jersey it is rare enough to give an excitement +to the day on which you discover it. No doubt it is commoner than we suppose, +for its coloring blends so admirably with its habitats that it is probably +very often overlooked. Its call-note, a common chirp, has nothing +distinguishing about it, and all ornithologists confess to having been often +misled by its song into thinking it came from the chipping sparrow. It closely +resembles that of the pine warbler also. If it were as nervously active as +most warblers, we should more often discover it, but it is quite as deliberate +as a vireo, and in the painstaking way in which it often circles around a tree +while searching for spiders and other insects that infest the trunks, it +reminds us of the brown creeper. Sunny slopes and hillsides covered with thick +undergrowth are its preferred foraging and nesting haunts. It is often seen +hopping directly on the dry ground, where it places its nest, and it never +mounts far above it. The well-drained, sunny situation for the home is chosen +with the wisdom of a sanitary expert. + + +ACADIAN FLYCATCHER (Empidonax virescens) Flycatcher family + +Called also: SMALL GREEN-CRESTED FLYCATCHER; SMALL PEWEE + +Length -- 5.75 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Dull olive above. Two conspicuous yellowish wing-bars. + Throat white, shading into pale yellow on breast. Light gray + or white underneath. Upper part of bill black; lower mandible + flesh-color. White eye-ring. +Female -- Greener above and more yellow below. +Range -- From Canada to Mexico, Central America, and West Indies. + Most common in south temperate latitudes. Winters in southerly + limit of range. +Migrations -- April. September. Summer resident. + +When all our northern landscape takes on the exquisite, soft green, gray, and +yellow tints of early spring, this little flycatcher, in perfect color-harmony +with the woods it darts among, comes out of the south. It might be a leaf that +is being blown about, touched by the sunshine filtering through the trees, and +partly shaded by the young foliage casting its first shadows. + +Woodlands, through which small streams meander lazily, inviting swarms of +insects to their boggy shores, make ideal hunting grounds for the Acadian +flycatcher. It chooses a low rather than a high, conspicuous perch, that other +members of its family invariably select; and from such a lookout it may be +seen launching into the air after the passing gnat -- darting downward, then +suddenly mounting upward in its aerial hunt, the vigorous clicks of the beak +as it closes over its tiny victims testifying to the bird's unerring aim and +its hearty appetite. + +While perching, a constant tail-twitching is kept up; and a faint, fretful +"Tshee-kee, tshee-kee" escapes the bird when inactively waiting for a dinner +to heave in sight. + +In the Middle Atlantic States its peeping sound and the clicking of its +particolored bill are infrequently heard in the village streets in the autumn, +when the shy and solitary birds are enticed from the deep woods by a prospect +of a more plentiful diet of insects, attracted by the fruit in orchards and +gardens. + +Never far from the ground, on two or more parallel branches, the shallow, +unsubstantial nest is laid. Some one has cleverly described it as "a tuft of +hay caught by the limb from a load driven under it," but this description +omits all mention of the quantities of blossoms that must be gathered to line +the cradle for the tiny, cream white eggs spotted with brown. + + +YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER (Empidonax flaviventris) Flycatcher + family + +Length -- 5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Rather dark, but true olive-green above. Throat and + breast yellowish olive, shading into pale yellow underneath, + including wing linings and under tail coverts. Wings have + yellowish bars. Whitish ring around eye. Upper part of bill + black, under part whitish or flesh-colored. +Female -- Smaller, with brighter yellow under parts and more + decidedly yellow wing-bars. +Range -- North America, from Labrador to Panama, and westward + from the Atlantic to the plains. Winters in Central America. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. More commonly a + migrant only. + +This is the most yellow of the small flycatchers and the only Eastern species +with a yellow instead of a white throat. Without hearing its call-note, +"pse-ek-pse-ek," which it abruptly sneezes rather than utters, it is quite +impossible, as it darts among the trees, to tell it from the Acadian +flycatcher, with which even Audubon confounded it. Both these little birds +choose the same sort of retreats -- well-timbered woods near a stream that +attracts myriads of insects to its spongy shores -- and both are rather shy +and solitary. The yellow-bellied species has a far more northerly range, +however, than its Southern relative or even the small green-crested +flycatcher. It is rare in the Middle States, not common even in New England, +except in the migrations, but from the Canada border northward its soft, +plaintive whistle, which is its love-song, may be heard in every forest where +it nests. All the flycatchers seem to make a noise with so much struggle, such +convulsive jerkings of head and tail, and flutterings of the wings that, +considering the scanty success of their musical attempts, it is surprising +they try to lift their voices at all when the effort almost literally lifts +them off their feet. + +While this little flycatcher is no less erratic than its Acadian cousin, its +nest is never slovenly. One couple had their home in a wild-grape bower in +Pennsylvania; a Virginia creeper in New Jersey supported another cradle that +was fully twenty feet above the ground; but in Labrador, where the bird has +its chosen breeding grounds, the bulky nest is said to be invariably placed +either in the moss by the brookside or in some old stump, should the locality +be too swampy. + + +BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER (Dendroica virens) Wood Warbler + family + +Length -- 5 inches. Over an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Back and crown of head bright yellowish olive-green. + Forehead, band over eye, cheeks, and sides of neck rich yellow. + Throat, upper breast, and stripe along sides black. Underneath + yellowish white. Wings and tail brownish olive, the former with + two white bars, the latter with much white in outer quills. In + autumn, plumage resembling the female's. +Female -- Similar; chin yellowish; throat and breast dusky, the + black being mixed with yellowish. +Range -- Eastern North America, from Hudson Bay to Central + America and Mexico. Nests north of Illinois and New York. + Winters in tropics. +Migrations -- May. October. Common summer resident north of New + Jersey. + +There can be little difficulty in naming a bird so brilliantly and distinctly +marked as this green, gold, and black warbler, that lifts up a few pure, +sweet, tender notes, loud enough to attract attention when he visits the +garden. "See-see, see-saw," he sings, but there is a tone of anxiety betrayed +in the simple, sylvan strain that always seems as if the bird needed +reassuring, possibly due to the rising inflection, like an interrogative, of +the last notes. + +However abundant about our homes during the migrations, this warbler, true to +the family instinct, retreats to the woods to nest -- not always so far away +as Canada, the nesting ground of most warblers, for in many Northern States +the bird is commonly found throughout the summer. Doubtless it prefers tall +evergreen trees for its mossy, grassy nest; but it is not always particular, +so that the tree be a tall one with a convenient fork in an upper branch. + +Early in September increased numbers emerge from the woods, the plumage of the +male being less brilliant than when we saw it last, as if the family cares of +the summer had proved too taxing. For nearly a month longer they hunt +incessantly, with much flitting about the leaves and twigs at the ends of +branches in the shrubbery and evergreens, for the tiny insects that the +warblers must devour by the million during their all too brief visit. + + + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY YELLOW AND ORANGE + + Yellow-throated Vireo + American Goldfinch + Evening Grosbeak + Blue-winged Warbler + Canadian Warbler + Hooded Warbler + Kentucky Warbler + Magnolia Warbler + Mourning Warbler + Nashville Warbler + Pine Warbler + Prairie Warbler + Wilson's Warbler or Blackcap Yellow Warbler or Summer + Yellowbird + Yellow Redpoll Warbler + Yellow-breasted Chat + Maryland Yellowthroat + Blackburnian Warbler + Redstart + Baltimore Oriole + +Look also among the Yellowish Olive Birds in the preceding group; +and among the Brown Birds for the Meadowlark and Flicker. See +also Parula Warbler (Slate) and Yellow-bellied Woodpecker (Black +and White). + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY YELLOW AND ORANGE + +YELLOW-THROATED VIREO (Vireo flavifrons) Vireo or Greenlet family + +Length -- 5.5. to 6 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Lemon-yellow on throat, upper breast; line + around the eye and forehead. Yellow, shading into olive-green, + on head, back, and shoulders. Underneath white. Tail dark + brownish, edged with white. Wings a lighter shade, with two + white bands across, and some quills edged with white. +Range -- North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico, and + westward to the Rockies. Winters in the tropics. +Migrations -- May. September. Spring and autumn migrant; more + rarely resident. + +This is undoubtedly the beauty of the vireo family -- a group of neat, active, +stoutly built, and vigorous little birds of yellow, greenish, and white +plumage; birds that love the trees, and whose feathers reflect the coloring of +the leaves they hide, hunt, and nest among. "We have no birds," says Bradford +Torrey, "so unsparing of their music: they sing from morning till night." + +The yellow-throated vireo partakes of all the family characteristics, but, in +addition to these, it eclipses all its relatives in the brilliancy of its +coloring and in the art of nest-building, which it has brought to a state of +hopeless perfection. No envious bird need try to excel the exquisite finish of +its workmanship. Happily, it has wit enough to build its pensile nest high +above the reach of small boys, usually suspending it from a branch overhanging +running water that threatens too precipitous a bath to tempt the young +climbers. + +However common in the city parks and suburban gardens this bird may be during +the migrations, it delights in a secluded retreat overgrown with tall trees +and near a stream, such as is dear to the solitary vireo as well when the +nesting time approaches. High up in the trees we hear its rather sad, +persistent strain, that is more in harmony with the dim forest than with the +gay flower garden, where, if the truth must be told, its song is both +monotonous and depressing. Mr. Bicknell says it is the only vireo that sings +as it flies. + + +AMERICAN GOLDFINCH (Spinus tristis) Finch family + +Called also: WILD CANARY; YELLOWBIRD; THISTLE BIRD + +Length -- 5 to 5.2 inches. About an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- In summer plumage: Bright yellow, except on crown of + head, frontlet, wings, and tail, which are black. Whitish + markings on wings give effect of bands. Tail with white on + inner webs. In winter plumage: Head yellow-olive; no frontlet; + black drab, with reddish tinge; shoulders and throat yellow; + soiled brownish white underneath. +Female -- Brownish olive above, yellowish white beneath. +Range -- North America, from the tropics to the Fur Countries and + westward to the Columbia River and California. Common + throughout its range. +Migrations -- May-October. Common summer resident, frequently + Seen throughout the winter as well. + +An old field, overgrown with thistles and tall, stalky wild flowers, is the +paradise of the goldfinches, summer or winter. Here they congregate in happy +companies while the sunshine and goldenrod are as bright as their feathers, +and cling to the swaying slender stems that furnish an abundant harvest, +daintily. lunching upon the fluffy seeds of thistle blossoms, pecking at the +mullein-stalks, and swinging airily among the asters and Michaelmas daisies; +or, when snow covers the same field with a glistening crust, above which the +brown stalks offer only a meagre dinner, the same birds, now sombrely clad in +winter feathers, cling to the swaying stems with cheerful fortitude. + +At your approach, the busy company rises on the wing, and with peculiar, wavy +flight rise and fall through the air, marking each undulation with a cluster +of notes, sweet and clear, that come floating downward from the blue ether, +where the birds seem to bound along exultant in their motion and song alike. + +In the spring the plumage of the goldfinch, which has been drab and brown +through the winter months, is moulted or shed -- a change that transforms the +bird from a sombre Puritan into the gayest of cavaliers, and seems to +wonderfully exalt his spirits. He bursts into a wild, sweet, incoherent melody +that might be the outpouring from two or three throats at once instead of one, +expressing his rapture somewhat after the manner of the canary, although his +song lacks the variety and the finish of his caged namesake. What tone of +sadness in his music the man found who applied the adjective tristis to his +scientific name it is difficult to imagine when listening to the notes that +come bubbling up from the bird's happy heart. + +With plumage so lovely and song so delicious and dreamy, it is small wonder +that numbers of our goldfinches are caught and caged, however inferior their +song may be to the European species recently introduced into this country. +Heard in Central Park, New York, where they were set at liberty, the European +goldfinches seemed to sing with more abandon, perhaps, but with no more +sweetness than their American cousins. The song remains at its best all +through the summer months, for the bird is a long wooer. It is nearly July +before he mates, and not until the tardy cedar birds are house-building in the +orchard do the happy pair begin to carry grass, moss, and plant-down to a +crotch of some tall tree convenient to a field of such wild flowers as will +furnish food to a growing family. Doubtless the birds wait for this food to be +in proper condition before they undertake parental duties at all +-- the most plausible excuse for their late nesting. The cares evolving from +four to six pale-blue eggs will suffice to quiet the father's song for the +winter by the first of September, and fade all the glory out of his shining +coat. As pretty a sight as any garden offers is when a family of goldfinches +alights on the top of a sunflower to feast upon the oily seeds -- a perfect +harmony of brown and gold. + + +EVENING GROSBEAK (Coccothraustes vespertinus) Finch family + +Length -- 8 inches. Two inches shorter than the robin. +Male -- Forehead, shoulders, and underneath clear yellow: dull + yellow on lower back; sides of the head, throat, and breast + olive-brown. Crown, tail, and wings black, the latter with + white secondary feathers. Bill heavy and blunt, and yellow. +Female -- Brownish gray, more less suffused with yellow. Wings + and tail blackish, with some white feathers. +Range -- Interior of North America. Resident from Manitoba + northward. Common winter visitor in northwestern United States + and Mississippi Valley; casual winter visitor in northern + Atlantic States. + +In the winter of 1889-90 Eastern people had the rare treat of becoming +acquainted with this common bird of the Northwest, that, in one of its erratic +travels, chose to visit New England and the Atlantic States, as far south as +Delaware, in great numbers. Those who saw the evening grosbeaks then remember +how beautiful their yellow plumage -- a rare winter tint -- looked in the +snow-covered trees, where small companies of the gentle and ever tame visitors +enjoyed the buds and seeds of the maples, elders, and evergreens. Possibly +evening grosbeaks were in vogue for the next season's millinery, or perhaps +Eastern ornithologists had a sudden zeal to investigate their structural +anatomy. At any rate, these birds, whose very tameness, that showed slight +acquaintance with mankind, should have touched the coldest heart, received the +warmest kind of a reception from hot shot. The few birds that escaped to the +solitudes of Manitoba could not be expected to tempt other travellers eastward +by an account of their visit. The bird is quite likely to remain rare in the +East. + +But in the Mississippi Valley and throughout the northwest, companies of from +six to sixty may be regularly counted upon as winter neighbors on almost every +farm. Here the females keep up a busy chatting, like a company of cedar birds, +and the males punctuate their pauses with a single shrill note that gives +little indication of their vocal powers. But in the solitude of the northern +forests the love-song is said to resemble the robin's at the start. Unhappily, +after a most promising beginning, the bird suddenly stops, as if he were out +of breath. + + +BLUE-WINGED WARBLER (Helminthophila pinus) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER + +Length -- 4.75 inches. An inch and a half shorter than the + English sparrow. +Male -- Crown of head and all under parts bright yellow. Back + olive-green. Wings and tail bluish slate, the former with white + bars, and three outer tail quills with large white patches on + their inner webs. +Female -- Paler and more olive. +Range -- Eastern United States, from southern New England and + Minnesota, the northern limit of its nesting range, to Mexico + And Central America, where it winters. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +In the naming of warblers, bluish slate is the shade intended when blue is +mentioned; so that if you see a dainty little olive and yellow bird with +slate-colored wings and tail hunting for spiders in the blossoming orchard or +during the early autumn you will have seen the beautiful blue-winged warbler. +It has a rather leisurely way of hunting, unlike the nervous, restless +flitting about from twig to twig that is characteristic of many of its many +cousins. The search is thorough -- bark, stems, blossoms, leaves are inspected +for larvae and spiders, with many pretty motions of head and body. Sometimes, +hanging with head downward, the bird suggests a yellow titmouse. After blossom +time a pair of these warblers, that have done serviceable work in the orchard +in their all too brief stay, hurry off to dense woods to nest. They are +usually to be seen in pairs at all seasons. Not to "high coniferous trees in +northern forests," -- the Mecca of innumerable warblers -- but to scrubby, +second growth of woodland borders, or lower trees in the heart of the woods, +do these dainty birds retreat. There they build the usual warbler nest of +twigs, bits of bark, leaves, and grasses, but with this peculiarity: the +numerous leaves with which the nest is wrapped all have their stems pointing +upward. Mr. Frank Chapman has admirably defined their song as consisting of +"two drawled, wheezy notes -- swee-chee, the first inhaled, the second +exhaled." + + +CANADIAN WARBLER (Sylvania canadensis) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: CANADIAN FLYCATCHER; SPOTTED CANADIAN WARBLER; + [CANADA WARBLER, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch shorter than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Immaculate bluish ash above, without marks on wings or + tail; crown spotted with arrow-shaped black marks. Cheeks, line + from bill to eye, and underneath clear yellow. Black streaks + forming a necklace across the breast. +Female -- Paler, with necklace indistinct. +Range -- North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to tropics. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident; most abundant in + migrations. + +Since about one-third of all the song-birds met with in a year's rambles are +apt to be warblers, the novice cannot devote his first attention to a better +group, confusing though it is by reason of its size and the repetition of the +same colors in so many bewildering combinations. Monotony, however, is unknown +in the warbler family. Whoever can rightly name every warbler, male and +female, on sight is uniquely accomplished. + +The jet necklace worn on this bird's breast is its best mark of +identification. Its form is particularly slender and graceful, as might be +expected in a bird so active, one to whom a hundred tiny insects barely afford +a dinner that must often be caught piecemeal as it flies past. To satisfy its +appetite, which cannot but be dainty in so thoroughly charming a bird, it +lives in low, boggy woods, in such retreats as Wilson's black-capped warbler +selects for a like reason. Neither of these two "flycatcher" warblers depends +altogether on catching insects on the wing; countless thousands are picked off +the under sides of leaves and about the stems of twigs in true warbler +fashion. + +The Canadian's song is particularly loud, sweet, and vivacious. It is +hazardous for any one without long field practice to try to name any warbler +by its song alone, but possibly this one's animated music is as characteristic +as any. + +The nest is built on the ground on a mossy bank or elevated into the root +crannies of some large tree, where there is much water in the woods. Bits of +bark, dead wood, moss, and fine rootlets, all carefully wrapped with leaves, +go to make the pretty cradle. Unhappily, the little Canada warblers are often +cheated out of their natural rights, like so many other delightful songbirds, +by the greedy interloper that the cowbird deposits in their nest. + + +HOODED WARBLER (Sylvania mitrata) Wood Warbler family + +Length -- 5 to 5.75 inches. About an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. +Male -- Head, neck, chin, and throat black like a hood in mature + male specimens only. Hood restricted, or altogether wanting in + female and young. Upper parts rich olive. Forehead, cheeks, and + underneath yellow. Some conspicuous white on tail feathers. +Female -- Duller, and with restricted cowl. +Range -- United States east of Rockies, and from southern + Michigan and southern New England to West Indies and tropical + America, where it winters. Very local. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +This beautifully marked, sprightly little warbler might be mistaken in his +immaturity for the yellowthroat; and as it is said to take him nearly three +years to grow his hood, with the completed cowl and cape, there is surely +sufficient reason here for the despair that often seizes the novice in +attempting to distinguish the perplexing warblers. Like its Southern +counterpart, the hooded warbler prefers wet woods and low trees rather than +high ones, for much of its food consists of insects attracted by the dampness, +and many of them must be taken on the wing. Because of its tireless activity +the bird's figure is particularly slender and graceful -- a trait, too, to +which we owe all the glimpses of it we are likely to get throughout the +summer. It has a curious habit of spreading its tail, as if it wished you to +take special notice of the white spots that adorn it; not flirting it, as the +redstart does his more gorgeous one, but simply opening it like a fan as it +flies and darts about. + +Its song, which is particularly sweet and graceful, and with more variation +than most warblers' music, has been translated "Che-we-eo-tsip, tsip, +che-we-eo," again interpreted by Mr. Chapman as "You must come to the woods, +or you won't see me." + + +KENTUCKY WARBLER (Geothlypis formosa) Wood Warbler family + +Length -- 5.5 inches. Nearly an inch shorter than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Upper parts olive-green; under parts yellow; a yellow + line from the bill passes over and around the eye. Crown of + head, patch below the eye, and line defining throat, black. +Female -- Similar, but paler, and with grayish instead of black + markings. +Range -- United States eastward from the Rockies, and from Iowa + and Connecticut to Central, America, where it winters. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +No bird is common at the extreme limits of its range, and so this warbler has +a reputation for rarity among the New England ornithologists that would +surprise people in the middle South and Southwest. After all that may be said +in the books, a bird is either common or rare to the individual who may or may +not have happened to become acquainted with it in any part of its chosen +territory. Plenty of people in Kentucky, where we might judge from its name +this bird is supposed to be most numerous, have never seen or heard of it, +while a student on the Hudson River, within sight of New York, knows it +intimately. It also nests regularly in certain parts of the Connecticut +Valley. "Who is my neighbor?" is often a question difficult indeed to answer +where birds are concerned. In the chapter, "Spring at the Capital," which, +with every reading of "Wake Robin," inspires the bird-lover with fresh zeal, +Mr. Burroughs writes of the Kentucky warbler: "I meet with him in low, damp +places, in the woods, usually on the steep sides of some little run. I hear at +intervals a clear, strong, bell-like whistle or warble, and presently catch a +glimpse of the bird as he jumps up from the ground to take an insect or worm +from the under side of a leaf. This is his characteristic movement. He belongs +to the class of ground warblers, and his range is very low, indeed lower than +that of any other species with which I am acquainted." + +Like the ovenbird and comparatively few others, for most birds hop over the +ground, the Kentucky warbler walks rapidly about, looking for insects under +the fallen leaves, and poking his inquisitive beak into every cranny where a +spider may be lurking. The bird has a pretty, conscious way of flying up to a +perch, a few feet above the ground, as a tenor might advance towards the +footlights of a stage, to pour forth his clear, penetrating whistle, that in +the nesting season especially is repeated over, and over again with tireless +persistency. + + +MAGNOLIA WARBLER (Dendroica maculosa) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: BLACK-AND-YELLOW WARBLER; SPOTTED WARBLER; + BLUE-HEADED YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER + +Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half smaller than + the English sparrow. +Male -- Crown of head slate-color, bordered on either side by a + white line; a black line, apparently running through the eye, + and a yellow line below it, merging into the yellow throat. + Lower back and under parts yellow. Back, wings, and tail + blackish olive. Large white patch on the wings, and the + middle of the tail-quills white. Throat and sides heavily + streaked with black. +Female -- Has greener back, is paler, and has less distinct + markings. +Range -- North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Summers from + northern Michigan and northern New England northward; winters + in Central America and Cuba. +Migrations -- May. October. Spring and summer migrant. + +In spite of the bird's name, one need not look for it in the glossy magnolia +trees of the southern gardens more than in the shrubbery on New England lawns, +and during the migrations it is quite as likely to be found in one place as in +the other. Its true preference, however, is for the spruces and hemlocks of +its nesting ground in the northern forests. For these it deserts us after a +brief hunt about the tender, young spring foliage and blossoms, where the +early worm lies concealed, and before we have become so well acquainted with +its handsome clothes that we will instantly recognize it in the duller ones it +wears on its return trip in the autumn. The position of the white marks on the +tail feathers of this warbler, however, is the clue by which it may be +identified at any season or any stage of its growth. If the white bar runs +across the middle of the warbler's tail, you can be sure of the identity of +the bird. A nervous and restless hunter, it nevertheless seems less shy than +many of its kin. Another pleasing characteristic is that it brings back with +it in October the loud, clear, rapid whistle with which it has entertained its +nesting mate in the Canada woods through the summer. + + +MOURNING WARBLER (Geothlypis philadelphia) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: MOURNING GROUND WARBLER + +Length -- 5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Gray head and throat; the breast gray; the feathers with + black edges that make them look crinkled, like crape. The black + markings converge into a spot on upper breast. Upper parts, + except head, olive. Underneath rich yellow. +Female -- Similar, but duller; throat and breast buff and dusky + where the male is black. Back olive-green. +Range -- "Eastern North America; breeds from eastern Nebraska, + northern New York, and Nova Scotia northward, and south ward + along the Alleghanies to Pennsylvania. Winters in the tropics." + -- Chapman. +Migrations -- May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. + +Since Audubon met with but one of these birds in his incessant trampings, and +Wilson secured only an immature, imperfectly marked specimen for his +collection, the novice may feel no disappointment if he fails to make the +acquaintance of this "gay and agreeable widow." And yet the shy and wary bird +is not unknown in Central Park, New York City. Even where its clear, whistled +song strikes the ear with a startling novelty that invites to instant pursuit +of the singer, you may look long and diligently through the undergrowth +without finding it. Dr. Merriam says the whistle resembles the syllables +"true, true, true, tru, too, the voice rising on the first three syllables and +falling on the last two." In the nesting season this song is repeated over and +over again with a persistency worthy of a Kentucky warbler. It is delivered +from a perch within a few feet of the ground, as high as the bird seems ever +inclined to ascend. + + +NASHVILLE WARBLER (Helminthophila ruficapilla) Wood Warbler + family + +Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half smaller than + the English sparrow. +Male -- Olive-green above; yellow underneath. Slate-gray head and + neck. Partially concealed chestnut patch on crown. Wings and + tail olive-brown and without markings. +Female -- Dull olive and paler, with brownish wash underneath. +Range -- North America, westward to the plains; north to the Fur + Countries, and south to Central America and Mexico. Nests north + of Illinois and northern New England; winters in tropics. +Migrations -- April. September or October. + +It must not be thought that this beautiful warbler confines itself to +backyards in the city of Nashville simply because Wilson discovered it near +there and gave it a local name, for the bird's actual range reaches from the +fur trader's camp near Hudson Bay to the adobe villages of Mexico and Central +America, and over two thousand miles east and west in the United States. It +chooses open rather than dense woods and tree-bordered fields. It seems to +have a liking for hemlocks and pine trees, especially if near a stream that +attracts insects to its shores; and Dr. Warren notes that in Pennsylvania he +finds small flocks of these warblers in the autumn migration, feeding in the +willowy trees near little rivers and ponds. Only in the northern parts of the +United States is their nest ever found, for the northern British provinces are +their preferred nesting ground. One seen in the White Mountains was built on a +mossy, rocky edge, directly on the ground at the foot of a pine tree, and made +of rootlets, moss, needles from the trees overhead, and several layers of +leaves outside, with a lining of fine grasses that cradled four white, +speckled eggs. + +Audubon likened the bird's feeble note to the breaking of twigs. + + +PINE WARBLER (Dendroica vigorsii) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: PINE-CREEPING WARBLER + +Length -- 5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male -- Yellowish olive above; clear yellow below, shading to + grayish white, with obscure dark streaks on side of breast. Two + whitish wing-bars; two outer tail feathers partly white. +Female -- Duller; grayish white only faintly tinged with yellow + underneath. +Range -- North America, east of the Rockies; north to Manitoba, + And south to Florida and the Bahamas. Winters from southern + Illinois southward. +Migrations -- March or April. October or later. Common summer + resident. + +The pine warbler closely presses the myrtle warbler for the first place in the +ranks of the family migrants, but as the latter bird often stays north all +winter, it is usually given the palm. Here is a warbler, let it be recorded, +that is fittingly named, for it is a denizen of pine woods only; most common +in the long stretches of pine forests at the south and in New York and New +England, and correspondingly uncommon wherever the woodsman's axe has laid the +pine trees low throughout its range. Its "simple, sweet, and drowsy song," +writes Mr. Parkhurst, is always associated "with the smell of pines on a +sultry day." It recalls that of the junco and the social sparrow or chippy. + +Creeping over the bark of trees and peering into every crevice like a +nuthatch; running along the limbs, not often hopping nervously or flitting +like the warblers; darting into the air for a passing insect, or descending to +the ground to feed on seeds and berries, the pine warbler has, by a curious +combination, the movements that seem to characterize several different birds. + +It is one of the largest and hardiest members of its family, but not +remarkable for its beauty. It is a sociable traveller, cheerfully escorting +other warblers northward, and welcoming to its band both the yellow redpolls +and the myrtle warblers. These birds are very often seen together in the pine +and other evergreen trees in our lawns and in the large city parks. + + +PRAIRIE WARBLER (Dendroica discolor) Wood Warbler family + +Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half shorter than + the English sparrow. +Male -- Olive-green above, shading to yellowish on the head, and + with brick-red spots on back between the shoulders. A yellow + line over the eye; wing-bars and all under parts bright yellow, + heavily streaked with black on the sides. Line through the eye + and crescent below it, black. Much white in outer tail + feathers. +Female -- Paler; upper parts more grayish olive, and markings + Less distinct than male's. +Range -- Eastern half of the United States. Nests as far north as + New England and Michigan. Winters from Florida southward. +Migrations -- May. September. Summer resident. + +Doubtless this diminutive bird was given its name because it prefers open +country rather than the woods -- the scrubby undergrowth of oaks, young +evergreens, and bushes that border clearings being as good a place as any to +look for it, and not the wind-swept, treeless tracts of the wild West. Its +range is southerly. The Southern and Middle States are where it is most +abundant. Here is a wood warbler that is not a bird of the woods -- less so, +in fact, than either the summer yellowbird (yellow warbler) or the palm +warbler, that are eminently neighborly and fond of pasture lands and roadside +thickets. But the prairie warblers are rather more retiring little sprites +than their cousins, and it is not often we get a close enough view of them to +note the brick-red spots on their backs, which are their distinguishing marks. +They have a most unkind preference for briery bushes, that discourage human +intimacy. In such forbidding retreats they build their nest of plant-fibre, +rootlets, and twigs, lined with plant-down and hair. + +The song of an individual prairie warbler makes only a slight impression. It +consists "of a series of six or seven quickly repeated tees, the next to the +last one being the highest" (Chapman). But the united voices of a dozen or +more of these pretty little birds, that often sing together, afford something +approaching a musical treat. + + +WILSON'S WARBLER (Sylvania pusila) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: BLACKCAP; GREEN BLACK-CAPPED WARBLER; WILSON'S + FLYCATCHER + +Length -- 4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half shorter than + the English sparrow. +Male -- Black cap; yellow forehead; all other upper parts + olive-green; rich yellow underneath. +Female -- Lacks the black cap. +Range -- North America, from Alaska and Nova Scotia to Panama. + Winters south of Gulf States. Nests chiefly north of the United + States. +Migrations -- May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. + +To see this strikingly marked little bird one must be on the sharp lookout for +it during the latter half of May, or at the season of apple bloom, and the +early part of September. It passes northward with an almost scornful rapidity. +Audubon mentions having seen it in Maine at the end of October, but this +specimen surely must have been an exceptional laggard. + +In common with several others of its family, it is exceedingly expert in +catching insects on the wing; but it may be known as no true flycatcher from +the conspicuous rich yellow of its under parts, and also from its habit of +returning from a midair sally to a different perch from the one it left to +pursue its dinner. A true flycatcher usually returns to its old perch after +each hunt. + +To indulge in this aerial chase with success, these warblers select for their +home and hunting ground some low woodland growth where a sluggish stream +attracts myriads of insects to the boggy neighborhood. Here they build their +nest in low bushes or upon the ground. Four or five grayish eggs, sprinkled +with cinnamon-colored spots in a circle around the larger end, are laid in the +grassy cradle in June. Mr. H. D. Minot found one of these nests on Pike's Peak +at an altitude of 11,000 feet, almost at the limit of vegetation. The same +authority compares the bird's song to that of the redstart and the yellow +warbler. + + +YELLOW REDPOLL WARBLER (Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea) Wood + Warbler family + +Called also: YELLOW PALM WARBLER; [the two former palm warbler + species combined as PALM WARBLER, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 5.5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. +Male and Female -- Chestnut crown. Upper parts brownish olive; + greenest on lower back. Underneath uniform bright yellow, + streaked with chestnut on throat, breast, and sides. Yellow + line over and around the eye. Wings unmarked. Tail edged with + olive-green; a few white spots near tips of outer quills. More + brownish above in autumn, and with a grayish wash over the + yellow under parts. +Range -- Eastern parts of North America. Nests from Nova Scotia + northward. Winters in the Gulf States. +Migrations -- April. October. Spring and autumn migrant. + +While the uniform yellow of this warbler's under parts in any plumage is its +distinguishing mark, it also has a flycatcher's trait of constantly flirting +its tail, that is at once an outlet for its superabundant vivacity and a +fairly reliable aid to identification. The tail is jerked, wagged, and flirted +like a baton in the hands of an inexperienced leader of an orchestra. One need +not go to the woods to look for the restless little sprite that comes +northward when the early April foliage is as yellow and green as its feathers. +It prefers the fields and roadsides, and before there are leaves enough on the +undergrowth to conceal it we may come to know it as well as it is possible to +know any bird whose home life is passed so far away. Usually it is the first +warbler one sees in the spring in New York and New England. With all the +alertness of a flycatcher, it will dart into the air after insects that fly +near the ground, keeping up a constant chip, chip, fine and shrill, at one end +of the small body, and the liveliest sort of tail motions at the other. The +pine warbler often bears it company. + +With the first suspicion of warm weather, off goes this hardy little fellow +that apparently loves the cold almost well enough to stay north all the year +like its cousin, the myrtle warbler. It builds a particularly deep nest, of +the usual warbler construction, on the ground, but its eggs are rosy rather +than the bluish white of others. + +In the Southern States the bird becomes particularly neighborly, and is said +to enter the streets and gardens of towns with a chippy's familiarity. + +Palm Warbler or Redpoll Warbler (Dendroica palmarum) differs from the +preceding chiefly in its slightly smaller size, the more grayish-brown tint in +its olive upper parts, and the uneven shade of yellow underneath that varies +from clear yellow to soiled whitish. It is the Western counterpart of the +yellow redpoll, and is most common in the Mississippi Valley. Strangely +enough, however, it is this warbler, and not hypochrysea, that goes out of its +way to winter in Florida, where it is abundant all winter. + + +YELLOW WARBLER (Dendroica aestiva) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: SUMMER YELLOWBIRD; GOLDEN WARBLER; YELLOW POLL + +Length -- 4.75 to 5.2 inches. Over an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. +Male -- Upper parts olive-yellow, brightest on the crown; under + parts bright yellow, streaked with reddish brown. Wings and + tail dusky olive-brown, edged with yellow. +Female -- Similar; but reddish-brown streakings less distinct. +Range -- North America, except Southwestern States, where the + prothonotary warbler reigns in its stead. Nests from Gulf + States to Fur Countries. Winters south of the Gulf States. As + far as northern parts of South America. +Migrations -- May. September. Common summer resident. + +This exquisite little creature of perpetual summer (though to find it it must +travel back and forth between two continents) comes out of the south with the +golden days of spring. From much living in the sunshine through countless +generations, its feathers have finally become the color of sunshine itself, +and in disposition, as well, it is nothing if not sunny and bright. Not the +least of its attractions is that it is exceedingly common everywhere: in the +shrubbery of our lawns, in gardens and orchards, by the road and brookside, in +the edges of woods -- everywhere we catch its glint of brightness through the +long summer days, and hear its simple, sweet, and happy song until the end of +July. + +Because both birds are so conspicuously yellow, no doubt this warbler is quite +generally confused with the goldfinch; but their distinctions are clear enough +to any but the most superficial glance. In the first place, the yellow warbler +is a smaller bird than the goldfinch; it has neither black crown, wings, nor +tail, and it does have reddish-brown streaks on its breast that are +sufficiently obsolete to make the coloring of that part look simply dull at a +little distance. The goldfinch's bill is heavy, in order that it may crack +seeds, whereas the yellow warbler's is slender, to enable it to pick minute +insects from the foliage. The goldfinch's wavy, curved flight is unique, and +that of his "double" differs not a whit from that of all nervous, flitting +warblers. Surely no one familiar with the rich, full, canary-like song of the +"wild canary," as the goldfinch is called, could confuse it with the mild +"Weechee, chee, cher-wee" of the summer yellowbird. Another distinction, not +always infallible, but nearly so, is that when seen feeding, the goldfinch is +generally below the line of vision, while the yellow warbler is either on it +or not far above it, as it rarely goes over twelve feet from the ground. + +No doubt, the particularly mild, sweet amiability of the yellow warbler is +responsible for the persistent visitations of the cowbird, from which it is a +conspicuous sufferer. In the exquisite, neat little matted cradle of +glistening milk-weed flax, lined with down from the fronds of fern, the +skulking housebreaker deposits her surreptitious egg for the little yellow +mother-bird to hatch and tend. But amiability is not the only prominent trait +in the female yellow warbler's character. She is clever as well, and quickly +builds a new bottom on her nest, thus sealing up the cowbird's egg, and +depositing her own on the soft, spongy floor above it. This operation has been +known to be twice repeated, until the nest became three stories high, when a +persistent cowbird made such unusual architecture necessary. + +The most common nesting place of the yellow warbler is in low willows along +the shores of streams. + + +YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT (Icteria virens) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: POLYGLOT CHAT; YELLOW MOCKING BIRD + +Length -- 7.5 inches. A trifle over an inch longer than the + English sparrow. +Male and Female -- Uniform olive-green above. Throat, breast, and + under side of wings bright, clear yellow. Underneath white. + Sides grayish. White line over the eye, reaching to base of + bill and forming partial eye-ring. Also white line on sides of + throat. Bill and feet black. +Range -- North America, from Ontario to Central America and + westward to the plains. Most common in Middle Atlantic States. +Migrations -- Early May. Late August or September. Summer + resident. + +This largest of the warblers might be mistaken for a dozen birds collectively +in as many minutes; but when it is known that the jumble of whistles, parts of +songs, chuckles, clucks, barks, quacks, whines, and wails proceed from a +single throat, the yellow-breasted chat becomes a marked specimen forthwith -- +a conspicuous individual never to be confused with any other member of the +feathered tribe. It is indeed absolutely unique. The catbird and the +mocking-bird are rare mimics; but while the chat is not their equal in this +respect, it has a large repertoire of weird, uncanny cries all its own -- a +power of throwing its voice, like a human ventriloquist, into unexpected +corners of the thicket or meadow. In addition to its extraordinary vocal +feats, it can turn somersaults and do other clown-like stunts as well as any +variety actor on the Bowery stage. + +Only by creeping cautiously towards the roadside tangle, where this +"rollicking polyglot" is entertaining himself and his mate, brooding over her +speckled eggs in a bulky nest set in a most inaccessible briery part of the +thicket, can you hope to hear him rattle through his variety performance. Walk +boldly or noisily past his retreat, and there is "silence there and nothing +more." But two very bright eyes peer out at you through the undergrowth, where +the trim, elegant-looking bird watches you with quizzical suspicion until you +quietly seat yourself assume silent indifference. "Whew, whew!" he begins, and +then immediately, with evident intent to amuse, he rattles off an +indescribable, eccentric medley until your ears are tired listening. With bill +uplifted, tail drooping, wings fluttering at his side, he cuts an absurd +figure enough, but not so comical as when he rises into the air, trailing his +legs behind him stork-fashion. This surely is the clown among birds. But any +though he is, he is as capable of devotion to his Columbine as Punchinello, +and remains faithfully mated year after year. However much of a tease and a +deceiver he may be to the passer-by along the roadside, in the privacy of the +domestic circle he shows truly lovable traits. + +He has the habit of singing in his unmusical way on moonlight nights. Probably +his ventriloquial powers are cultivated not for popular entertainment, but to +lure intruders away from his nest. + + +MARYLAND YELLOWTHROAT (Geothlypis trichas) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: BLACK-MASKED GROUND WARBLER; [COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, + AOU 1998] + +Length -- 5.33 inches. Just an inch shorter than the typical + English sparrow. +Male -- Olive-gray on head, shading to olive-green on all the + other upper parts. Forehead, cheeks, and sides of head black, + like a mask, and bordered behind by a grayish line. Throat and + breast bright yellow, growing steadily paler underneath. +Female -- Either totally lacks black mask or its place is + Indicated by only a dusky tint. She is smaller and duller. +Range -- Eastern North America, west to the plains; most common + east of the Alleghanies. Nests from the Gulf States to Labrador + and Manitoba; winters south of Gulf States to Panama. +Migrations -- May. September. Common summer resident. + +"Given a piece of marshy ground with an abundance of skunk cabbage and a +fairly dense growth of saplings, and near by a tangle of green brier and +blackberry, and you will be pretty sure to have it tenanted by a pair of +yellowthroats," says Dr. Abbott, who found several of their nests in +skunk-cabbage plants, which he says are favorite cradles. No animal cares to +touch this plant if it can be avoided; but have the birds themselves no sense +of smell? + +Before and after the nesting season these active birds, plump of form, elegant +of attire, forceful, but not bold, enter the scrubby pastures near our houses +and the shrubbery of old- fashioned, overgrown gardens, and peer out at the +human wanderer therein with a charming curiosity. The bright eyes of the male +masquerader shine through his black mask, where he intently watches you from +the tangle of syringa and snowball bushes; and as he flies into the laburnum +with its golden chain of blossoms that pale before the yellow of his throat +and breast, you are so impressed with his grace and elegance that you follow +too audaciously, he thinks, and off he goes. And yet this is a bird that seems +to delight in being pursued. It never goes so far away that you are not +tempted to follow it, though it be through dense undergrowth and swampy +thickets, and it always gives you just glimpse enough of its beauties and +graces before it flies ahead, to invite the hope of a closer inspection next +time. When it dives into the deepest part of the tangle, where you can imagine +it hunting about among the roots and fallen leaves for the larvae, +caterpillars, spiders, and other insects on which it feeds, it sometimes +amuses itself with a simple little song between the hunts. But the bird's +indifference, you feel sure, arises from preoccupation rather than rudeness. + +If, however, your visit to the undergrowth is unfortunately timed and there +happens to be a bulky nest in process of construction on the ground, a quickly +repeated, vigorous chit, pit, quit, impatiently inquires the reason for your +bold intrusion. Withdraw discreetly and listen to the love-song that is +presently poured out to reassure his plain little maskless mate. The music is +delivered with all the force and energy of his vigorous nature and penetrates +to a surprising distance. "Follow me, follow me, follow me," many people hear +him say; others write the syllables, "Wichity, wichity, wichity, wichity"; and +still others write them, "I beseech you, I beseech you, I beseech you," though +the tones of this self-assertive bird rather command than entreat. Mr. Frank +Chapman says of the yellowthroats: "They sing throughout the summer, and in +August add a flight-song to their repertoire. This is usually uttered toward +evening, when the bird springs several feet into the air, hovers for a second, +and then drops back to the bushes." + + +BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER (Dendroica blackburnia) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: HEMLOCK WARBLER; ORANGE-THROATED WARBLER; TORCH-BIRD + +Length -- 4.5 to 5.5 inches. An inch and a half smaller than the + English sparrow. +Male -- Head black, striped with orange-flame; throat and breast + orange, shading through yellow to white underneath; wings, + tail, and part of back black, with white markings. +Female -- Olive-brown above, shading into yellow on breast, and + paler under parts. +Range -- Eastern North America to plains. Winters in tropics. +Migrations -- May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. + +"The orange-throated warbler would seem to be his right name, his +characteristic cognomen," says John Burroughs, in ever-delightful "Wake +Robin"; "but no, he is doomed to wear the name of some discoverer, perhaps the +first who robbed his nest or rifled him of his mate -- Blackburn; hence, +Blackburnian warbler. The burn seems appropriate enough, for in these dark +evergreens his throat and breast show like flame. He has a very fine warble, +suggesting that of the redstart, but not especially musical." + +No foliage is dense enough to hide, and no autumnal tint too brilliant to +outshine this luminous little bird that in May, as it migrates northward to +its nesting ground, darts in and out of the leafy shadows like a tongue of +fire. + +It is by far the most glorious of all the warblers -- a sort of diminutive +oriole. The quiet-colored little mate flits about after him, apparently lost +in admiration of his fine feathers and the ease with which his thin tenor +voice can end his lover's warble in a high Z. + +Take a good look at this attractive couple, for in May they leave us to build +a nest of bark and moss in the evergreens of Canada -- that paradise for +warblers -- or of the Catskills and Adirondacks, and in autumn they hurry +south to escape the first frosts. + + +REDSTART (Setophaga ruticilla) Wood Warbler family + +Called also: YELLOW-TAILED WARBLER; [AMERICAN REDSTART, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. +Male -- In spring plumage: Head, neck, back, and middle breast + glossy black, with blue reflections. Breast and underneath + white, slightly flushed with salmon, increasing to bright + salmon-orange on the sides of the body and on the wing linings. + Occasional specimens show orange-red. Tail feathers partly + black, partly orange, with broad black band across the end. + Orange markings on wings. Bill and feet black. In autumn: + Fading into rusty black, olive, and yellow. +Female -- Olive-brown, and yellow where the male is orange. Young + browner than the females. +Range -- North America to upper Canada. West occasionally, as far + as the Pacific coast, but commonly found in summer in the + Atlantic and Middle States. +Migrations -- Early May. End of September. Summer resident. + +Late some evening, early in May, when one by one the birds have withdrawn +their voices from the vesper chorus, listen for the lingering "'tsee, 'tsee, +'tseet" (usually twelve times repeated in a minute), that the redstart sweetly +but rather monotonously sings from the evergreens, where, as his tiny body +burns in the twilight, Mrs. Wright likens him to a "wind-blown firebrand, half +glowing, half charred." + +But by daylight this brilliant little warbler is constantly on the alert. It +is true he has the habit, like the flycatchers (among which some learned +ornithologists still class him), of sitting pensively on a branch, with fluffy +feathers and drooping wings; but the very next instant he shows true warbler +blood by making a sudden dash upward, then downward through the air, tumbling +somersaults, as if blown by the wind, flitting from branch to branch, busily +snapping at the tiny insects hidden beneath the leaves, clinging to the +tree-trunk like a creeper, and singing between bites. + +Possibly he will stop long enough in his mad chase to open and shut his tail, +fan-fashion, with a dainty egotism that, in the peacock, becomes rank vanity. + +The Germans call this little bird roth Stert (red tail), but, like so many +popular names, this is a misnomer, as, strictly speaking, the redstart is +never red, though its salmon-orange markings often border on to orange-flame. + +In a fork of some tall bush or tree, placed ten or fifteen feet from the +ground, a carefully constructed little nest is made of moss, horsehair, and +strippings from the bark, against which the nest is built, the better to +conceal its location. Four or five whitish eggs, thickly sprinkled with pale +brown and lilac, like the other warblers', are too jealously guarded by the +little mother-bird to be very often seen. + + +BALTIMORE ORIOLE (Iderus galbula) Oriole and Blackbird family + +Called also: GOLDEN ORIOLE;FIREBIRD; GOLDEN ROBIN; HANG-NEST; + ENGLISH ROBIN + +Length -- 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. +Male -- Head, throat, upper part of back glossy black. Wings + black, with white spots and edgings. Tail-quills black, with + yellow markings on the tips. Everywhere else orange, shading + into flame. +Female -- Yellowish olive. Wings dark brown, and quills margined + with white. Tail yellowish brown, with obscure, dusky bars. +Range -- The whole United States. Most numerous in Eastern States + below 55 degrees north latitude. +Migrations -- Early May. Middle of September. Common summer + resident. + +A flash of fire through the air; a rich, high, whistled song floating in the +wake of the feathered meteor: the Baltimore oriole cannot be mistaken. When +the orchards are in blossom he arrives in full plumage and song, and awaits +the coming of the female birds, that travel northward more leisurely in +flocks. He is decidedly in evidence. No foliage is dense enough to hide his +brilliancy; his temper, quite as fiery as his feathers, leads him into noisy +quarrels, and his insistent song with its martial, interrogative notes becomes +almost tiresome until he is happily mated and family cares check his +enthusiasm. + +Among the best architects in the world is his plain but energetic mate. +Gracefully swung from a high branch of some tall tree, the nest is woven with +exquisite skill into a long, flexible pouch that rain cannot penetrate, nor +wind shake from its horsehair moorings. Bits of string, threads of silk, and +sometimes yarn of the gayest colors, if laid about the shrubbery in the +garden, will be quickly interwoven with the shreds of bark and milkweed stalks +that the bird has found afield. The shape of the nest often differs, because +in unsettled regions, where hawks abound, it is necessary to make it deeper +than seven inches (the customary depth when it is built near the homes of +men), and to partly close it at the top to conceal the sitting bird. From four +to six whitish eggs, scrawled over with black-brown, are hatched by the mother +oriole, and most jealously guarded by her now truly domesticated mate. + +The number of grubs, worms, flies, caterpillars, and even cocoons, that go to +satisfy the hunger of a family of orioles in a day, might indicate, if it +could be computed, the great value these birds are about our homes, aside from +the good cheer they bring. + +There is a popular tradition about the naming of this gorgeous bird: When +George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, worn out and discouraged by various +hardships in his Newfoundland colony, decided to visit Virginia in 1628, he +wrote that nothing in the Chesapeake country so impressed him as the myriads +of birds in its woods. But the song and color of the oriole particularly +cheered and delighted him, and orange and black became the heraldic colors of +the first lords proprietors of Maryland. + + Hush! 'tis he! My Oriole, my glance of summer fire, + Is come at last; and ever on the watch, + Twitches the pack-thread I had lightly wound + About the bough to help his housekeeping. + Twitches and scouts by turns, blessing his luck, + Yet fearing me who laid it in his way. + Nor, more than wiser we in our affairs, + Divines the Providence that hides and helps. + Heave, ho! Heave, ho! he whistles as the twine + Slackens its hold; once more, now! and a flash + Lightens across the sunlight to the elm + Where his mate dangles at her cup of felt. + -- James Russell Lowell. + + + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY RED OF ANY SHADE + + Cardinal Grosbeak + Summer Tanager + Scarlet Tanager + Pine Grosbeak + American Crossbill and the White-winged Crossbill + Redpoll and Greater Redpoll + Purple Finch + Robin + Orchard Oriole + +See the Red-winged Blackbird (Black). See also the males of the +Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the Woodpeckers, the Chewink (Black and +White), the Red-breasted Nuthatch, the Bay-breasted and the +Chestnut-sided Warblers (Slate and Gray); the Bluebird and Barn +Swallow (Blue); the Flicker (Brown); the Humming-bird and the +Kinglets (Greenish Gray); and the Blackburnian and Redstart +Warblers, and the Baltimore Oriole (Orange). + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY RED OF ANY SHADE + + +CARDINAL GROSBEAK (Cardinalis cardinalis) Finch family + +Called also: CRESTED REDBIRD; VIRGINIA REDBIRD; VIRGINIA + NIGHTINGALE; CARDINAL BIRD; [NORTHERN CARDINAL, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 8 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. +Male -- Brilliant cardinal; chin and band around bill black. Beak + stout and red. Crest conspicuous. In winter dress, wings washed + with gray. +Female -- Brownish yellow above, shading to gray below. Tail + shorter than the male's. Crest, wings, and tail reddish. Breast + sometimes tinged with red. +Range -- Eastern United States. A Southern bird, becoming more + and more common during the summer in States north of Virginia, + especially in Ohio, south of which it is resident throughout + the year. +Migrations -- Resident rather than migrating birds, remaining + throughout the winter in localities where they have found their + way. Travel in flocks. + +Among the numerous names by which this beautiful bird is known, it has become +immortalized under the title of Mr. James Lane Allen's exquisite book, "The +Kentucky Cardinal." Here, while we are given a most charmingly sympathetic, +delicate account of the bird "who has only to be seen or heard, and Death +adjusts an arrow," it is the cardinal's pathetic fate that impresses one most. +Seen through less poetical eyes, however, the bird appears to be a haughty +autocrat, a sort of "F. F. V." among the feathered tribes, as, indeed, his +title, "Virginia redbird," has been unkindly said to imply. Bearing himself +with a refined and courtly dignity, not stooping to soil his feet by walking +on the ground like the more democratic robin, or even condescending below the +level of the laurel bushes, the cardinal is literally a shining example of +self-conscious superiority -- a bird to call forth respect and admiration +rather than affection. But a group of cardinals in a cedar tree in a snowy +winter landscape makes us forgetful of everything but their supreme beauty. + +As might be expected in one of the finch family, the cardinal is a songster -- +the fact which, in connection with his lovely plumage, accounts for the number +of these birds shipped in cages to Europe, where they are known as Virginia +nightingales. Commencing with a strong, rich whistle, like the high notes of a +fife, "Cheo-cheo-cheo-cheo," repeated over and over as if to make perfect the +start of a song he is about to sing, suddenly he stops, and you learn that +there is to be no glorious performance after all, only a prelude to -- +nothing. The song, such as it is, begins, with both male and female, in March, +and lasts, with a brief intermission, until September -- "the most melodious +sigh," as Mr. Allen calls it. Early in May the cardinals build a bulky and +loosely made nest, usually in the holly, laurel, or other evergreen shrubs +that they always love to frequent, especially if these are near fields of corn +or other grain. And often two broods in a year come forth from the pale-gray, +brown-marked eggs, beating what is literally for them the "fatal gift of +beauty." + + +SUMMER TANAGER (Piranga rubra) Tanager family + +Called also: REDBIRD; SMOOTH-HEADED REDBIRD + +Length -- 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. +Male -- Uniform red. Wings and tail like the body. +Female -- Upper parts yellowish olive-green; underneath inclining + to orange-yellow. +Range -- Tropical portions of two Americas and eastern United + States. Most common in Southern States. Rare north of + Pennsylvania. Winters in the tropics. Mirations -- In Southern + States: April. October. Irregular migrant north of the + Carolinas. + +Thirty years ago, it is recorded that so far north as New Jersey the summer +redbird was quite as common as any of the thrushes. In the South still there +is scarcely an orchard that does not contain this tropical-looking beauty -- +the redbird par excellence, the sweetest singer of the family. Is there a more +beautiful sight in all nature than a grove of orange trees laden with fruit, +starred with their delicious blossoms, and with flocks of redbirds disporting +themselves among the dark, glossy leaves? Pine and oak woods are also favorite +resorts, especially at the north, where the bird nowadays forsakes the +orchards to hide his beauty, if he can, unharmed by the rifle that only rarely +is offered so shining a mark. He shows the scarlet tanager's preference for +tree-tops, where his musical voice, calling "Chicky-tucky-tuk," alone betrays +his presence in the woods. The Southern farmers declare that he is an +infallible weather prophet, his "wet, WET, WET," being the certain indication +of rain -- another absurd saw, for the call-note is by no means confined to +the rainy season. + +The yellowish-olive mate, whose quiet colors betray no nest secrets, collects +twigs and grasses for the cradle to be saddled on the end of some horizontal +branch, though in this work the male sometimes cautiously takes an +insignificant part. After her three or four eggs are laid she sits upon them +for nearly two weeks, being only rarely and stealthily visited by her mate +with some choice grub, blossom, or berry in his beak. But how cheerfully his +fife-like whistle rings out during the temporary exile! Then his song is at +its best. Later in the summer he has an aggravating way of joining in the +chorus of other birds' songs, by which the pleasant individuality of his own +voice is lost. + +A nest of these tanagers, observed not far from New York City, was commenced +the last week of May on the extreme edge of a hickory limb in an open wood; +four eggs were laid on the fourth of June, and twelve days later the tiny +fledglings, that all look like their mother in the early stages of their +existence, burst from the greenish-white, speckled shells. In less than a +month the young birds were able to fly quite well and collect their food. + + +SCARLET TANAGER (Piranga erythromelas) Tanager family + +Called also: BLACK-WINGED REDBIRD; FIREBIRD; CANADA TANAGER; + POCKET-BIRD + +Length -- 7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. +Male -- In spring plumage: Brilliant scarlet, with black wings + And tail. Under wing coverts grayish white. In autumn: Similar + To female. +Female -- Olive-green above; wings and tail dark, lightly + Margined with olive. Underneath greenish yellow. +Range -- North America to northern Canada boundaries, and + southwardin winter to South America. +Migrations -- May. October. Summer resident + +The gorgeous coloring of the scarlet tanager has been its snare and +destruction. The densest evergreens could not altogether hide this blazing +target for the sportsman's gun, too often fired at the instigation of city +milliners. "Fine feathers make fine birds" -- and cruel, silly women, the +adage might be adapted for latter-day use. This rarely beautiful tanager, +thanks to them, is now only an infrequent flash of beauty in our country +roads. + +Instinct leads it to be chary of its charms; and whereas it used to be one of +the commonest of bird neighbors, it is now shy and solitary. An ideal resort +for it is a grove of oak or swamp maple near a stream or pond where it can +bathe. Evergreen trees, too, are favorites, possibly because the bird knows +how exquisitely its bright scarlet coat is set off by their dark background. + +High in the tree-tops he perches, all unsuspected by the visitor passing +through the woods below, until a burst of rich, sweet melody directs the +opera-glasses suddenly upward. There we detect him carolling loud and +cheerfully, like a robin. He is an apparition of beauty -- a veritable bird of +paradise, as, indeed, he is sometimes called. Because of their similar +coloring, the tanager and cardinal are sometimes confounded, but an instant's +comparison of the two birds shows nothing in common except red feathers, and +even those of quite different shades. The inconspicuous olive-green and yellow +of the female tanager's plumage is another striking instance of Nature's +unequal distribution of gifts; but if our bright-colored birds have become +shockingly few under existing conditions, would any at all remain were the +females prominent, like the males, as they brood upon the nest? Both tanagers +construct a rather disorderly-looking nest of fibres and sticks, through which +daylight can be seen where it rests securely upon the horizontal branch of +some oak or pine tree; but as soon as three or four bluish-green eggs have +been laid in the cradle, off goes the father, wearing his tell-tale coat, to a +distant tree. There he sings his sweetest carol to the patient, brooding mate, +returning to her side only long enough to feed her with the insects and +berries that form their food. + +Happily for the young birds' fate, they are clothed at first in motley, dull +colors, with here and there only a bright touch of scarlet, yellow, and olive +to prove their claim to the parent whose gorgeous plumage must be their +admiration. But after the moulting season it would be a wise tanager that knew +its own father. His scarlet feathers are now replaced by an autumn coat of +olive and yellow not unlike his mate's. + + +PINE GROSBEAK (Pinicola enucleator) Finch family + +Called also: PINE BULLFINCH + +Length -- Variously recorded from 6.5 to 11 inches. Specimen + measured 8.5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. +Male -- General color strawberry-red, with some slate-gray + fleckings about head, under wings, and on legs. Tail brown; + wings brown, marked with black and white and slate. A band- + shaped series of markings between the shoulders. Underneath + paler red, merging into grayish green. Heavy, conspicuous bill. +Female -- Ash-brown. Head and hind neck yellowish brown, each + feather having central dusky streak. Cheeks and throat + yellowish. Beneath ash-gray, tinged with brownish yellow under + tail. +Range -- British American provinces and northern United States. +Migrations -- Irregular winter visitors; length of visits as + uncertain as their coming. + +As inseparable as bees from flowers, so are these beautiful winter visitors +from the evergreen woods, where their red feathers, shining against the +dark-green background of the trees, give them charming prominence; but they +also feed freely upon the buds of various deciduous trees. + +South of Canada we may not look for them except in the severest winter +weather. Even then their coming is not to be positively depended upon; but +when their caprice -- or was it an unusually fierce northern blast? -- sends +them over the Canada border, it is a simple matter to identify them when such +brilliant birds are rare. The brownish-yellow and grayish females and young +males, however, always seem to be in the majority with us, though our Canadian +friends assure us of the irreproachable morals of this gay bird. + +Wherever there are clusters of pine or cedar trees, when there is a flock of +pine grosbeaks in the neighborhood, you may expect to find a pair of birds +diligently feeding upon the seeds and berries. No cheerful note escapes them +as they persistently gormandize, and, if the truth must be confessed, they +appear to be rather stupid and uninteresting, albeit they visit us at a time +when we are most inclined to rapture over our bird visitors. They are said to +have a deliciously sweet song in the nesting season. When, however, few except +the Canadian voyageurs hear it. + + +AMERICAN CROSSBILL (Loxia curvirostra minor) Finch family + +Called also: RED CROSSBILL [AOU 1998] + +Length -- 6 to 7 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. +Male -- General color Indian red, passing into brownish gray, + with red tinge beneath. Wings (without bands), also tail, + brown, Beak crossed at the tip. +Female -- General color greenish yellow, with brownish tints. + Dull-yellowish tints on head, throat, breast, and underneath. + Wings and tail pale brown. Beak crossed at tip. +Range -- Pennsylvania to northern British America. West of + Mississippi, range more southerly. +Migrations -- Irregular winter visitor. November. Sometimes + resident until April. + +It is a rash statement to say that a bird is rare simply because you have +never seen it in your neighborhood, for while you are going out of the front +door your rara avis may be eating the crumbs about your kitchen. Even with our +eyes and ears constantly alert for some fresh bird excitement, our phlegmatic +neighbor over the way may be enjoying a visit from a whole flock of the very +bird we have been looking and listening for in vain all the year. The red +crossbills are capricious little visitors, it is true, but by no means +uncommon. + +About the size of an English sparrow, of a brick or Indian red color, for the +most part, the peculiarity of its parrot-like beak is its certain mark of +identification. + +Longfellow has rendered into verse the German legend of the crossbill, which +tells that as the Saviour hung upon the cross, a little bird tried to pull out +the nails that pierced His hands and feet, thus twisting its beak and staining +its feathers with the blood. + +At first glance the birds would seem to be hampered by their crossed beaks in +getting at the seeds in the pine cones -- a superficial criticism when the +thoroughness and admirable dexterity of their work are better understood. + +Various seeds of fruits, berries, and the buds of trees enlarge their bill of +fare. They are said to be inordinately fond of salt. Mr. Romeyn B. Hough tells +of a certain old ice-cream freezer that attracted flocks of crossbills one +winter, as a salt-lick attracts deer. Whether the traditional salt that may +have stuck to the bird's tail is responsible for its tameness is not related, +but it is certain the crossbills, like most bird visitors from the far north, +are remarkably gentle, friendly little birds. As they swing about the pine +trees, parrot-fashion, with the help of their bill, calling out kimp, kimp, +that sounds like the snapping of the pine cones on a sunny day, it often seems +easily possible to catch them with the hand. + +There is another species of crossbill, called the White-winged (Loxia +leucoptera), that differs from the preceding chiefly in having two white bands +across its wings and in being more rare. + + +THE REDPOLL (Acanthis linaria) Finch family + +Called also: REDPOLL LINNET; LITTLE SNOWBIRD; LESSER REDPOLL; + [COMMON REDPOLL, AOU 1998] + +Length -- 5.25 to 5.5 inches. About an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. +Male -- A rich crimson wash on head, neck, breast, and lower + back, that is sometimes only a pink when we see the bird in + midwinter. Grayish-brown, sparrowy feathers show underneath the + red wash. Dusky wings and tail, the feathers more or less edged + with whitish. Soiled white underneath; the sides with dusky + streaks. Bill sharply pointed. +Female -- More dingy than male, sides more heavily streaked, and + having crimson only on the crown. +Range -- An arctic bird that descends irregularly into the + Northern United States. +Migrations -- An irregular winter visitor. + +"Ere long, amid the cold and powdery snow, as it were a fruit of the season, +will come twittering a flock of delicate crimson-tinged birds, lesser +redpolls, to sport and feed on the buds just ripe for them on the sunny side +of a wood, shaking down the powdery snow there in their cheerful feeding, as +if it were high midsummer to them." Thoreau's beautiful description of these +tiny winter visitors, which should be read entire, shows the man in one of his +most sympathetic, exalted moods, and it is the best brief characterization of +the redpoll that we have. + +When the arctic cold becomes too cruel for even the snow-birds and crossbills +to withstand, flocks of the sociable little redpolls flying southward are the +merest specks in the sullen, gray sky, when they can be seen at all. So high +do they keep that often they must pass above our heads without our knowing it. +First we see a quantity of tiny dots, like a shake of pepper, in the cloud +above, then the specks grow larger and larger, and finally the birds seem to +drop from the sky upon some tall tree that they completely cover -- a +veritable cloudburst of birds. Without pausing to rest after the long journey, +down they flutter into the weedy pastures with much cheerful twittering, to +feed upon whatever seeds may be protruding through the snow. Every action of a +flock seems to be concerted, as if some rigid disciplinarian had drilled them, +and yet no leader can be distinguished in the merry company. When one flies, +all fly; where one feeds, all feed, and by some subtle telepathy all rise at +the identical instant from their feeding ground and cheerfully twitter in +concert where they all alight at once. They are more easily disturbed than the +goldfinches, that are often seen feeding with them in the lowlands; +nevertheless, they quite often venture into our gardens and orchards, even in +suburbs penetrated by the trolley-car. + +Usually in winter we hear only their lisping call-note; but if the birds +linger late enough in the spring, when their "fancy lightly turns to thoughts +of love," a gleeful, canary-like song comes from the naked branches, and we +may know by it that the flock will soon disappear for their nesting grounds in +the northern forests. + +The Greater Redpoll (Acanthis linaria rostrata) may be distinguished from the +foregoing species by its slightly larger size, darker upper parts, and +shorter, stouter bill. But the notes, habits, and general appearance of both +redpolls are so nearly identical that the birds are usually mistaken for each +other. + + +PURPLE FINCH (Carpodacus purpureus) Finch family + +Called also: PURPLE LINNET + +Length -- 6 to 6.25 inches. About the same size as the English + sparrow. +Male -- Until two years old, sparrow-like in appearance like the + female, but with olive-yellow on chin and lower back. + Afterwards entire body suffused with a bright raspberry-red, + deepest on head, lower back, and breast, and other parts only + faintly washed with this color. More brown on back; and wings + and tail, which are dusky, have some reddish brown feathers. + Underneath grayish white. Bill heavy. Tail forked. +Female -- Grayish olive brown above; whitish below; finely + Streaked everywhere with very dark brown, like a sparrow. Sides + of breast have arrow-shaped marks. Wings and tail darkest. +Range -- North America, from Columbia River eastward to Atlantic + and from Mexico northward to Manitoba. Most common in Middle + States and New England. Winters south of Pennsylvania. +Migrations -- March. November. Common summer resident. Rarely + individuals winter at the north. + +In this "much be-sparrowed country" of ours familiarity is apt to breed +contempt for any bird that looks sparrowy, in which case one of the most +delicious songsters we have might easily be overlooked. It is not until the +purple finch reaches maturity in his second year that his plumage takes on the +raspberry-red tints that some ornithologists named purple. Oriental purple is +our magenta, it is true, but not a raspberry shade. Before maturity, but for +the yellow on his lower back and throat, he and his mate alike suggest a +song-sparrow; and it is important to note their particularly heavy, rounded +bills, with the tufts of feathers at the base, and their forked tails, to name +them correctly. But the identification of the purple finch, after all, depends +quite as much upon his song as his color. In March, when flocks of these birds +come north, he has begun to sing a little; by the beginning of May he is +desperately in love, and sudden, joyous peals of music from the elm or +evergreen trees on the lawn enliven the garden. How could his little brown +lady-love fail to be impressed with a suitor so gayly dressed, so tender and +solicitous, so deliciously sweet-voiced? With fuller, richer song than the +warbling vireo's, which Nuttall has said it resembles, a perfect ecstasy of +love, pours incessantly from his throat during the early summer days. There is +a suggestion of the robins love-song in his, but its copiousness, variety, and +rapidity give it a character all its own. + +In some old, neglected hedge or low tree about the countryplace a flat, grassy +nest, lined with horsehair, contains four or five green eggs in June, and the +old birds are devotion itself to each other, and soon to their young, sparrowy +brood. + +But when parental duties are over, the finches leave our lawns and gardens to +join flocks of their own kind in more remote orchards or woods, their favorite +haunts. Their subdued warble may be heard during October and later, as if the +birds were humming to themselves. + +Much is said of their fondness for fruit blossoms and tree buds, but the truth +is that noxious insects and seeds of grain constitute their food in summer, +the berries of evergreens in winter. To a bird so gay of color, charming of +voice, social, and trustful of disposition, surely a few blossoms might be +spared without grudging. + + +THE AMERICAN ROBIN (Merula migratoria) Thrush family + +Called also: RED-BREASTED OR MIGRATORY THRUSH; ROBIN-REDBREAST + +Length -- 10 inches. +Male -- Dull brownish olive-gray above. Head black; tail brownish + black, with exterior feathers white at inner tip. Wings dark + brownish. Throat streaked with black and white. White eyelids. + Entire breast bright rusty red; whitish below the tail. +Female -- Duller and with paler breast, resembling the male in + autumn. +Range -- North America, from Mexico to arctic regions. +Migrations -- March. October or November. Often resident + throughout the year. + +It seems almost superfluous to write a line of description about a bird that +is as familiar as a chicken; yet how can this nearest of our bird neighbors be +passed without a reference? Probably he was the very first bird we learned to +call by name. + +The early English colonists, who had doubtless been brought up, like the rest +of us, on "The Babes in the Wood," named the bird after the only heroes in +that melancholy tale; but in reality the American robin is a much larger bird +than the English +robin-redbreast and less brilliantly colored. John Burroughs calls him, of all +our birds, "the most native and democratic." + +How the robin dominates birddom with his strong, aggressive personality! His +voice rings out strong and clear in the early morning chorus, and, more +tenderly subdued at twilight, it still rises above all the sleepy notes about +him. Whether lightly tripping over the lawn after the "early worm," or rising +with his sharp, quick cry of alarm, when startled, to his nest near by, every +motion is decided, alert, and free. No pensive hermit of the woods, like his +cousins, the thrushes, is this joyous vigorous "bird of the morning." Such a +presence is inspiriting. + +Does any bird excel the robin in the great variety of his vocal expressions? +Mr. Parkhurst, in his charming "Birds' Calendar," says he knows of "no other +bird that is able to give so many shades of meaning to a single note, running +through the entire gamut of its possible feelings. From the soft and mellow +quality, almost as coaxing as a dove's note, with which it encourages its +young when just out of the nest, the tone, with minute gradations, becomes +more vehement, and then harsh and with quickened reiteration, until it +expresses the greatest intensity of a bird's emotions. Love, contentment, +anxiety, exultation, rage -- what other bird can throw such multifarious +meaning into its tone? And herein the robin seems more nearly human than any +of its kind." + +There is no one thing that attracts more birds about the house that a +drinking-dish -- large enough for a bathtub as well; and certainly no bird +delights in sprinkling the water over his back more than a robin, often aided +in his ablutions by the spattering of the sparrows. But see to it that this +drinking-dish is well raised above the reach of lurking cats. + +While the robin is a famous splasher, his neatness stops there. A robin's nest +is notoriously dirty within, and so carelessly constructed of weed-stalks, +grass, and mud, that a heavy summer shower brings more robins' nests to the +ground than we like to contemplate. The color of the eggs, as every one knows, +has given their name to the tint. Four is the number of eggs laid, and two +broods are often reared in the same nest. + +Too much stress is laid on the mischief done by the robins in the cherry trees +and strawberry patches, and too little upon the quantity of worms and insects +they devour. Professor Treadwell, who experimented upon some young robins kept +in captivity, learned that they ate sixty-eight earthworms daily -- "that is, +each bird ate forty-one per cent more than its own weight in twelve hours! The +length of these worms, if laid end to end, would be about fourteen feet. Man, +at this rate, would eat about seventy pounds of flesh a day, and drink five or +six gallons of water." + + +ORCHARD ORIOLE (Icterus spurius) Blackbird and Oriole family + +Called also: ORCHARD STARLING; ORCHARD HANG-NEST + +Length -- 7 to 7.3 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. +Male -- Head, throat, upper back, tail, and part of wings black. + Breast, rump, shoulders, under wing and tail coverts, and under + parts bright reddish brown. Whitish-yellow markings on a few + tail and wing feathers. +Female -- Head and upper parts olive, shading into brown; + brighter on head and near tail. Back and wings dusky brown, + with pale-buff shoulder-bars and edges of coverts. Throat + black. Under parts olive, shading into yellow. +Range -- Canada to Central America. Common in temperate latitudes + of the United States. +Migrations -- Early May. Middle of September. Common summer + resident. + +With a more southerly range than the Baltimore oriole and less conspicuous +coloring, the orchard oriole is not so familiar a bird in many Northern +States, where, nevertheless, it is quite common enough to be classed among our +would-be intimates. The orchard is not always as close, to the house as this +bird cares to venture; he will pursue an insect even to the piazza vines. + +His song, says John Burroughs, is like scarlet, "strong, intense, emphatic," +but it is sweet and is more rapidly uttered than that of others of the family. +It is ended for the season early in July. + +This oriole, too, builds a beautiful nest, not often pendent like the +Baltimore's, but securely placed in the fork of a sturdy fruit tree, at a +moderate height, and woven with skill and precision, like a basket. When the +dried grasses from one of these nests were stretched and measured, all were +found to be very nearly the same length, showing to what pains the little +weaver had gone to make the nest neat and pliable, yet strong. Four +cloudy-white eggs with dark-brown spots are usually found in the nest in June. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Bird Neighbors, by Neltje Blanchan + diff --git a/1889.zip b/1889.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e7f7b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/1889.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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