Bird Neighbors
by Neltje Blanchan · English · Gutenberg #1889 · 438,198 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Bird Neighbors
Author: Neltje Blanchan
Author of introduction, etc.: John Burroughs
Release date: September 1, 1999 [eBook #1889]
Most recently updated: April 3, 2015
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1889
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRD NEIGHBORS ***
Ver.04.29.93*END*
Bird Neighbors
by Neltje Blanchan
Etext prepared by Gerry Rising of Buffalo, NY. Notes [in brackets] are the
American Ornithologists Union bird names as of 1998.
BIRD NEIGHBORS. 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 e
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